Fostering Students’ Clinical Competence through Objective Structured Clinical Assessment (OSCA)

An Objective Structured Clinical Assessment (OSCA) method was adopted by a course team in an attempt to resolve some of the learning difficulties experienced by the baccalaureate nursing students in clinical practice. The assessment required the students to work through some simulations developed from real encounters. The performance of the students was evaluated against the checklists which were formulated by the lecturers and verified by three clinical experts. The students were informed of the findings of the assessment and their opinions on teaching and learning were solicited. Based on these results, the lecturers planned the curriculum for the following semester. After implementation, a summative evaluation was undertaken in the form of another OSCA. The progress achieved by the students, which was facilitated by the lecturers’ planned actions, was explicitly shown in the second assessment. In light of the fruitful experience, the authors recommended the cycle to be continued as a teaching and learning strategy in the nursing programme.