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An Objective Structured Clinical Examination is a form of performance-based testing used to measure a candidate’s clinical competence. The clinical skills to be evaluated in EFOG EBCOG are history taking, technical skills, communication, teamwork, integration of knowledge into clinical problem solving, and evaluation of the clinical relevance of a scientific article.

During an OSCE, candidates are assessed and evaluated as they go through a series of stations in which they interview, examine, and treat standardized patients and/or medical simulators or are presented with a clinical problem to solve.

Objective of the Exam

All candidates are assessed using exactly the same stations with the same marking scheme. In an OSCE, candidates get marks for each step on the mark scheme that they perform correctly. This makes the assessment of clinical skills more objective, rather than subjective.

Structured

Each station in an OSCE has a very specific task. Where simulated patients are used, detailed scripts are provided to ensure that the information that they give is the same to all candidates, including the emotions the patient should use during the consultation. Instructions are carefully written to ensure that the candidate is given a very specific task to complete. The EFOG OSCE is carefully structured to include parts from all elements of the curriculum as well as a wide range of skills.

Clinical Examination

The OSCE is designed to assess the application of clinical and theoretical knowledge. Where theoretical knowledge is required, for example, answering questions from the examiner at the end of the stations, then the questions are standardized and the candidate is only asked questions that are on the mark sheet. If the candidate is asked any others, then there will be no marks for them.

The EFOG EBCOG Part 2 OSCE exam is intended to test practical and clinical skills. Some of these stations will have patient actresses, some will have medical simulators and all will have examiners observing and rating skills which participants will be asked to demonstrate. Each station will take 10 minutes, after which participants will rotate to the next station. Marking for OSCES is done by the examiner.

The EFOG Part 2 OSCE component of the exam will consist of 10 stations: including a rest station for reading a scientific article, followed by another station of the evaluation of the article, two for basic technical skills (1 Obs and 1 Gyn), two for complex technical skills (1 Obs and 1 Gyn), two for knowledge integration and decision-making (1 Obs and 1 Gyn); and two for communication skills. Candidates will have two minutes of reading time and the examination will be conducted in English. The Part 2 exam is held once a year in November.

Hope you found this information helpful. All the best with the EFOG Part 2 OSCE exam!!