Comparing two methods of evaluation, objective structured practical ‎examination and traditional examination, on the satisfaction of students in Shahid ‎Beheshti faculty of nursing and midwifery

Introduction: Nursing education consists of theoretical and practical courses. Practical &lrm;courses provide opportunity for student to convert their theoretical knowledge to &lrm;psychomotor abilities. More than &lrm;&rlm;50%&rlm;&lrm; of nursing and midwifery curriculum in two and four &lrm;year programs are designed for practical activities. Evaluation is one of the most important &lrm;issues in nursing education. Application of precise evaluation methods can identify the &lrm;strength and weakness of the educational program and help to find suitable strategies to &lrm;improve it.&lrm; &nbsp;Objective: The aim of this study was to compare the effects of two methods of evaluation: &lrm;Objective structured practical examination (OSPE) and Traditional Practical Examination &lrm;&lrm;(TPE) with students' satisfaction in Shahid Beheshti faculty of nursing and midwifery.&lrm; Methods: This is a quasi &ndash; experimental study and &lrm;&rlm;67&rlm;&lrm; nursing, midwifery and operating room &lrm;students participated. Sampling was performed according to census method and students &lrm;were divided in two groups. &lrm;&rlm;33&rlm;&lrm; students were evaluated by objective structured practical &lrm;examination (OSPE) and &lrm;&rlm;34&rlm;&lrm; students were evaluated by traditional practical examination &lrm;method (TPE). In order to measure the level of students' satisfaction with the evaluation &lrm;methods, a &lrm;&rlm;16&rlm;&lrm; item self administered questionnaire based on Likert scale were completed at &lrm;the end of each evaluation. Data was analyzed by SPSS soft wear using appropriate statistical &lrm;test.&lrm; &nbsp;Results: The most desirable statement of traditional practical examination group was the item &lrm;of &quot;This method of evaluation decreases stress and anxiety&quot; and the most satisfying statement &lrm;of Objective Structured Practical Examination group was the item of &quot;In this evaluation &lrm;method chance doesn&rsquo;t interfere&quot;. Over all &lrm;&rlm;60.6&rlm;&lrm; percent of students who were evaluated by &lrm;OSPE method and &lrm;&rlm;14.7&rlm;&lrm; percent of students who were evaluated by TPE method were &lrm;satisfied with the evaluation (P< &lrm;&rlm;0/005&rlm;&lrm;).&lrm; Conclusion: It is concluded that Objective Structured Practical Examination (OSPE) can &lrm;evaluate more practical skills and gain more students&rsquo; satisfaction. &lrm;