Assessment of Radiology Technology Students’ Internship with Objective Structured Clinical Examination

Background: Programming and planning an appropriate structure for internship and purposeful assessments of students play a considerable role in developing their practical and theoretical knowledge level. One of the suitable alternatives for the traditional method is assessing internship through Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE). Therefore the aim of the present study is to perform an objective and structured method for assessing and evaluating radiology students’ internship and comparing it with the previous common method. Methods: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study which participants were all B.Sc. radiology students, having started university in 87 and 88 solar year in Urmia University of Medical Sciences. For reaching the aims of the study a form called radiology students’ internship assessment was planned. Its validity and reliability were confirmed through content validity and test-retest methods respectively. Results: The results of this study were achieved through assessment form with correct and incorrect answers of students in different working stands and their satisfaction. The results in the form of the percent of correct and incorrect answers of students to each one of the items of working stands showed that in the working stands under study the coefficient of correct answer were 79.5% to 95.5%. The results also showed that 72% of students preferred the mentioned method to the traditional one. Conclusions: Assessment of learners is one of the basic fields of educational activities; therefore a method based on OSCE was used for assessing radiology students’ internship in Urmia University of Medical Sciences for the first time. The results of this study showed that involving the students during internship and fulfilling tasks individually by the students are necessary for expressing students’ scientific and practical qualifications.