Comparison of students' performance of objective structured clinical examination during clinical practice

Clinical practice for medical students aims to improve their clinical competency. Since students gain experience in clinical practice, it is assumed that their capacity for care is strengthened. This study aimed to verify whether there is a change in the competency of medical students after clinical practice.

We assessed the clinical performance of 120 medical students who were enrolled in the fifth year over the academic years 2016-2018. Objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) was used to measure the clinical competency.

The OSCE scores for November fifth grade improved significantly compared to May fifth grade. The scores in September of sixth grade were slightly lower than those of November of fifth grade, but there was no statistically significant difference.

It was confirmed that the clinical practice of fifth-year students improved their clinical competency, but it did not show any significant shift in the clinical competency of sixth-year students. The results of this study suggest that it is very important to organize the curriculum so that students can continue to experience patient-facing care throughout the entire clinical practice course to produce highly qualified physicians.