Pharmacy OSCEs: A revision guide

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During sexual intercourse, how often were you able to maintain your erection after you had penetrated your partner? Rosen RC, Cappelleri JC, Smith MD, Lipsky J, Peñ BM. Development and evaluation of an abridged, 5-item version of the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF-5) as a diagnostic tool for erectile dysfunction. Int J Impot Res. 1999;11(6):319–26. Practicability: OSCE allows the use of simulated patients and clinical materials, thereby decreasing the need for real patients during the examination. Although several countries such as the US, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and Japan have used the OSCE in various ways for evaluating clinical competencies of pharmacy students, most pharmacy schools around the world have not yet introduced or are preparing to introduce the OSCE in their pharmaceutical education systems [ 21, 38]. Therefore, other countries or organizations could refer to the OSCE model developed in this study to develop or improve the OSCE system for competency assessment of students’ readiness for the pharmacy practice experiences in community or hospital pharmacies.

Once necessity has been identified, you should consider how much of the medication is needed for a therapeutic effect. This decision should be evidence-based but person-centred. For example, some randomised controlled trials will identify a therapeutic dose, however, the participants in the trial may be very different to the patient in front of you. Undergraduate pharmacy students are required to know how to make and administer medicines, design and deliver medicines as well as diagnose and optimally treat illnesses. Patient care and safety is paramount during the undergraduate degree and beyond into pharmacy practise. The pitfalls of implementing OSCEs revolve around validity, reliability, feasibility and acceptability. Using an established set of components to assess students in an OSCE may appear accurate, but the efficiency and shrewdness of those able to diagnose with minimum effort is put at disadvantage. As the OSCE necessitates conformation to the structured path of the creators, the focus of the exam is on the exam structure rather than on the learner. 1, 27 Overall validity and reliability of the examination is determined by the quality of individual stations. When stations are too short, the problem could be further compounded and assessment of even simple clinical skills may be more difficult. 26

There are often no clinical signs present in patients with ED, although in some cases male genital examination may reveal structural abnormalities of the penis.

Preparation time and budget: The preparation time for simulated patient (SP)-based OSCE is longer, as it includes script writing, training, and pilot testing. It may take several sessions for an SP to become familiar with the case and realistically portray the findings in a consistent manner. The increased budget needed to run a successful SP program is also a valid concern. Okay, so we’ve discussed your medication which included [two inhalers, your medication for anxiety, pain, diabetes, epilepsy and the vitamins you buy over the counter]. The plan is to reduce your diazepam by one tablet each day and I’m going to call you in two weeks to see how you feel that is going and then review everything else again at your usual review appointment with the GP surgery.” An OSCE usually comprises a circuit of short (the usual is 5–10 minutes although some use up to 15 minute) stations, in which each candidate is examined on a one-to-one basis with one or two impartial examiner(s) and either real or simulated (actors or electronic patient simulators) patients. Each station has a different examiner, as opposed to the traditional method of clinical examinations where a candidate would be assigned to an examiner for the entire examination. Candidates rotate through the stations, completing all the stations on their circuit. In this way, all candidates take the same stations. It is considered to be an improvement over traditional examination methods because the stations can be standardised enabling fairer peer comparison and complex procedures can be assessed without endangering patients health.

Dress professionally and accordingly to NHS dress code. Looking neat might not give you extra marks, but it does help you make a good first impression. Remember to tie up long hair, roll sleeves up above the elbows and take off your wristwatch. Historically, doses were written using Latin and over time these were abbreviated. For example, omni die or once a day is abbreviated to OD. Many errors relating to prescriptions are caused by folks not just failing to read Latin, but failing to read abbreviated Latin! For example, quatro die or four times a day is abbreviated to QD, which can be misread as OD, if handwritten, leading to sub-therapeutic doses. To avoid errors then, try to write doses using plain English such as once, twice, three times (avoid thrice) or four times per day. The Qualifying Examination online applications are added to your Portal account once you qualify. No hard copy documents are required. Login to your Portal account and follow the instructions to complete the application(s) and pay the fee: De Boer MK, Castelein S, Wiersma D, Schoevers RA, Knegtering H. The facts about sexual (dys)function in schizophrenia: An overview of clinically relevant findings. Schizophr Bull. 2015;41(3):674–86. This is not the dose! The strength relates to how much drug is in the formulation you have requested. For example, 10mg tablets or 5mg tablets.

The OSCE model can be used to assess pharmacy students’ readiness for off-campus clinical pharmacy practice experience. Our pilot study suggests the necessity of conducting an OSCE domain-based adjustment of difficulty levels, and strengthening simulation-based IPPE education. Broader content coverage: Unlike the conventional short or long case examination format, multi-station OSCE allows broader content and domain coverage.There are, however, criticisms that the OSCE stations can never be truly standardized and objective in the same way as a written exam. It has been known for different patients / actors to afford more assistance, and for different marking criteria to be applied. Finally, it is not uncommon at certain institutions for members of teaching staff be known to students (and vice versa) as the examiner. This familiarity does not necessarily affect the integrity of the examination process, although there is a deviation from anonymous marking. However, in OSCEs that use several circuits of the same stations the marking is repeatedly shown to be very consistent which supports the validity that the OSCE is a fair clinical examination. There are arguments for and against quarantining OSCE examinees to prevent sharing of exam information. [5] Although the data tend to show no improvement in the overall scores in a later OSCE session, the research methodology is flawed and validity of the claim is questionable. [6] A study suggested that marks do not give a sound inference of student collusion in an OSCE. [7] Candidates Preparation [ edit ] Kurtz S, Silverman J, Benson J, Draper J. Marrying Content and Process in Clinical Method Teaching: Enhancing the Calgary–Cambridge Guides. Academic Medicine. 2003;78:802-809. I don’t think we need any additional monitoring or tests done at this point for anything. Is that okay?” During sexual intercourse, how difficult was it to maintain your erection to completion of intercourse?