Confidence and performance in objective structured clinical examination

A total of one hundred and three pre-registration midwifery students (42 year one; 61 year three) took part in Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) as part of their routine assessment over a three year pre-registration course. They completed preand postexam questionnaires which asked them to rate their confidence in the clinical skills being assessed on a scale from 1 to 10 (1 being 'not confident' and 10 being 'totally confident'). Their perceived confidence was matched against a series of 52 statements relating to skills and competencies associated with their professional role. A follow-up study was done with the former year 1 students (now year 3) who again completed a preand postexam questionnaire. Here we explored the data to investigate the relationship between self-confidence and performance during an OSCE and to begin to understand the dynamics of the situation. Pearson test was used to investigate the correlation between the OSCE scores and students' confidence and t-test was employed for comparative analyses. The results showed significant increases in mean confidence levels from before to after OSCE for both first and second year students (5.52(1.25) to 6.49(1.19); p=0.001 & 7.49(0.87) to 8.01(0.73); p<0.001, respectively) . However, there was no significant correlation between confidence levels before undertaking the OSCE and the final OSCE test scores (r= 0.12; p=0.315). This lack of significant correlation may be due to the inherent complexity of assessing such relationships. Larger studies with mixed methodology are required for further investigation of this important area of education and assessment research.