Evaluation of moral competency using standardized patient: presenting an experience

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Professional Ethics

Background:

• Assessing ethical competency in medical graduates is crucial.
• Traditional assessment methods may not fully capture practical ethical skills.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the implementation of an ethics objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) station in endocrinology board examinations.
• To evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of using OSCE for assessing ethical decision-making and communication skills.

Main Methods:

• Development of a truth-telling OSCE station with a trained standardized patient.
• Pilot testing and modification of the evaluation checklist.
• Integration of the finalized station into the endocrinology board exam OSCE phase.

Main Results:

• The ethics OSCE station was successfully integrated into the endocrinology board examination.
• The OSCE format proved practical and reasonable for assessing ethical competencies.
• The method facilitates a shift towards practical, skill-based ethics learning.

Conclusions:

• Incorporating ethics stations into board examinations via OSCE is feasible and beneficial.
• OSCE effectively evaluates ethical decision-making and communication skills.
• This approach enhances the practical application of ethics in medical training.