a brief report on the implementation of an objective structured clinical examination (osce) in the 2006 iranian board of psychiatry examination

evaluation of the psychiatry residency graduates knowledge and competencies has traditionally relied on the individual patient assessment (ipa) method (1,2). however, this method is unreliable and its outcome depends to a large extent on the luck of the draw (3-5). past research has shown that objective structured clinical examination (osce) method has many advantages over ipa (6-9). as a result, the iranian board of psychiatry has been considering the adoption of the osce method for the psychiatry board examinations for a number of years. in 2004, the iranian council for graduate medical education, the agency responsible for graduate medical education in the country, instructed all specialty boards to use osce in the clinical and oral parts of their specialty examinations.