Senior medical students as peer examiners in an OSCE

At Sydney Medical School, we have recently introduced a practice objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) where our junior medical students are assessed by the senior peers.

We sought to evaluate the efficacy of the programme.

The study took place in 2010 and 2011, with two cohorts of final-year students participating. A total of 40/98 (41%) of final-year students chose to participate as examiners. Following the completion of standardised marking sheets by the student examiners, the marking sheets were reviewed by a senior academic examiner, and the 'global' mark was adjusted in accordance with the marking criteria. Student examiners also completed an open and closed-ended questionnaire regarding their experience as an examiner. A total of 105/115 (91%) of year 2 medical students were examined in the OSCE over the two-year period.

The senior academic changed a total of 94 'global' marks, reducing the majority (55%) from 'satisfactory' to 'borderline'; 12% were reduced from 'satisfactory' to 'not satisfactory' and 33% from 'borderline' to 'not satisfactory'. Student questionnaire results showed a high level of engagement with their examiner experience overall, and it was regarded as a useful learning experience.

Student examiners found peer assessment to be a very useful learning activity. However, our students need further training in how to globally assess a fellow student's overall performance objectively and to provide accurate feedback.