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Updated: Apr 13, 2026
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Published on: September 4, 2019
Measuring professional behaviour in canadian physical therapy students' objective structured clinical examinations:
Robyn Davies1, Cindy Ellerton2, Cathy Evans2
1Department of Physical Therapy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto ; Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto.
Purpose:
To identify professional behaviours measured in objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs) by Canadian university physical therapy (PT) programs.
Method:
A cross-sectional telephone survey was conducted to review current practice and determine which OSCE items Canadian PT programs are using to measure PT students' professional behaviours. Telephone interviews using semi-structured questions were conducted with individual instructors responsible for courses that included an OSCE as part of the assessment component.
Results:
Nine PT programmes agreed to take part in the study, and all reported conducting at least one OSCE. The number and characteristics of OSCEs varied both within and across programs. Participants identified 31 professional behaviour items for use in an OSCE; these items clustered into four categories: communication (n=14), respect (n=10), patient safety (n=4), and physical therapists' characteristics (n=3).
Conclusions:
All Canadian entry-level PT programmes surveyed assess professional behaviours in OSCE-type examinations; however, the content and style of assessment is variable. The local environment should be considered when determining what professional behaviours are appropriate to assess in the OSCE context in individual programmes.
