Towards enhanced OSCE in Australian nurse education: a contribution from South Africa

In the area of nurse education, one of the most advanced countries in the world in terms of the use of the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) is South Africa. South African nurse educators have developed and implemented the use of OSCE as a form of assessment and evaluated its effectiveness over a considerable number of years. In contrast the use of OSCE in nurse education in Australia is in its infancy. This paper describes an in-depth case study undertaken to gather information from South African experts in pre-registration nurse education about clinical skills evaluation and, in particular, about the use of OSCE. Recommendations about the development, administration and evaluation of OSCE generated from this information provided a resource and guide that could be used in the development and refinement of OSCE in the context of pre-registration nursing education in Australia. The findings of this study, along with information about the pre-registration context of nurse education in Australia to which they are intended to be applied, are presented. This provides feedback to those who participated in the study and information for nurse educators interested in reviewing their OSCE strategies.