Self-assessment differences between genders in a low-stakes objective structured clinical examination (OSCE)

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Clinical Skills Assessment
• Gender Differences in Medicine

Background:

• Physicians and medical students often exhibit poor self-assessment accuracy.
• Existing research indicates gender disparities in self-assessment among medical students, with females tending to underestimate their abilities more than males.
• It remains unclear if these gender differences persist in low-stakes assessment environments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate gender-based differences in self-assessment accuracy among medical students.
• To compare self-assessment with peer-assessment in a low-stakes Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE).

Main Methods:

• A cohort of 33 third-year medical students (15 males, 18 females) participated in a 5-station mock OSCE.
• Peer assessment scores were provided by trained fourth-year student examiners using a 6-point Likert scale.
• Students self-assessed their performance using the same rating scale.

Main Results:

• Female students' self-assessment scores were significantly lower than peer assessment scores (p < 0.001).
• No significant difference was observed between self- and peer-assessment scores for male students (p = 0.228).
• This highlights a gender-based underestimation in self-assessment among female medical students, even in formative OSCEs.

Conclusions:

• Gender differences in self-assessment accuracy are evident in low-stakes medical education settings.
• Female medical students demonstrate a tendency to underestimate their performance relative to peer evaluations.
• These findings underscore the importance of addressing gender-specific self-assessment discrepancies in medical training.