The Effects of an Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCE) to Evaluation Knowledge and Clinical Skills in Primary Medical Care Subject of Nursing Students

Abstract

Clinical knowledge and skills are essential to providing care for patients. Students who have good knowledge will lead to quality clinical practice. The using the Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCE) help the students assess knowledge and clinical skill at primary medical care subject. The research was quasi-experimental study. The aims of the study were to study and compare the knowledge and clinical skills in primary medical care subject of nursing students. The sample group was 93 participants who were a 4th year nursing students at Boromarajonani College of Nursing, Surin. In academic year 2018, from cluster random sampling. The instrument was a questionnaire including knowledge and clinical skills in primary medical care subject. The questionnaire was approved by three experts and had accepted reliability (KR-21=.62 and α= .90 respectively). Data analysis included percentage, mean, standard deviation, and pair t-test. The results showed that mean scores of knowledge and clinical skills (Mean = 16.9, SD= 2.3; Mean = 162.8, SD= 3.6 respectively) were higher than that of clinical skills in primary medical care subject (Mean = 13.2, SD= 2.9; Mean = 140.9, SD= 14.1 respectively). For comparison, mean score of knowledge between before and after treatment was significant (p< .01). Like the knowledge, mean score of clinical skills in primary medical care subject between before and after treatment was significant (p< .01). The study suggested that using OSCE can improve scores of knowledge and clinical skill. Therefore, OSCE should be used to increase their knowledge and clinical skills of nursing students in the future.