OSPE for non-surgical aesthetic training programme

Objective structured practical examination (OSPE) has proven a reliable assessment tool in many specialities. Therefore, we aimed to construct an OSPE tool that could assess the clinical facial anatomy knowledge of non-surgical aesthetic practitioners in a simulated environment.

Ten subject matter experts identified the themes individually with significant experience in teaching non-surgical aesthetic practitioners. A consensus is then reached following extensive discussion to determine the final themes. After blueprinting, 25 stations were created comprising a single best answer with a clinical vignette and either a dissected Cephalus or a high-resolution picture of a dissected Cephalus or a skull and a full-face photograph of a patient. Finally, concurrent and construct validity were assessed for individual questions. Twenty-five novices and 25 experts participated in the OSPE pilot. Each cycle lasted 45 minutes (90 seconds per station; 25 clinical and five rest stations). Internal reliability was measured by Cronbach's alpha. In addition, the novices and experts group scores were compared, employing an independent t-test.

The mean item difficulty of the 25 questions was 0.65. There was a significant difference in the scores for experts (M = 48.56, SD = 1.003), novices (M = 33.60, SD = 3.18) and conditions; t (48) = 22.38, p = 0.000. These results suggest the construct validity and confirm the robustness of the OSPE set-up to accomplish the learning outcomes.

We successfully designed and validated OSPE as an assessment tool to examine non-surgical aesthetic practitioners' clinical facial anatomy knowledge. We envisage using OSPE in our future programmes and encourage programme directors to integrate it into the postgraduate curriculum in non-surgical aesthetics.