Using the objective structured clinical examination in a psychiatry residency

Evaluation of psychiatric residents' clinical skills and knowledge is important to assure faculty that residents are achieving competence. Because psychiatric residents perform many activities without direct observation, it is necessary to construct techniques that allow careful objective evaluation of their performance. This article describes how one residency program developed an Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) to assess the clinical skills of its PGY-2 and PGY-4 psychiatric residents.