Review Article
Year: 2020 | Month: October-December | Volume: 5 | Issue: 4 | Pages: 85-92
Implementing OSCE in Radiation Oncology and COVID-19 Era: The Way Ahead
Nitin Gupta1, Muninder Negi2, Shalini Verma2
1M.D. Nuclear Medicine, 2M.D. Radiation Oncology, Department of Radiation Oncology and Nuclear Medicine, Dr Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College, Kangra at Tanda Himachal Pradesh, India
Corresponding Author: Muninder Negi
ABSTRACT
Objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) is a well established, versatile, reliable, and effective tool for the assessment of practical skills of medical professionals in an objective manner. It has proven to offer certain advantages over conventional practical examination methods in terms of its ability to add transparency to the examination and remove issues such as bias and favouritism sometimes reported with former methods. In India, though OSCE has been initiated and implemented in some of the specialities like paediatrics, ophthalmology, otolaryngology and dentistry but it is still in a nascent stage. There is a need to familiarize both medical students and faculty in our institutes so as to accept and include OSCE as a part of post graduate exit examinations in India. This article analyses the OSCE format including OSCE stations, its various attributes and important issues like the advantages of OSCE, relevant problems associated with it and their solutions. The article carries a special perspective on implementation of OSCE in radiation oncology post graduate examinations. Lastly, with the emergence of the COVID-19 and its adverse implications on medical education, and the prospects of a prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, the articles deals with an approach to safely conduct OSCE as a part of post graduate examinations to avoid unnecessary delays in the exit of the post graduate students upon completion of their residency, to enable them to join as specialists at their new work places.
Keywords: OSCE, assessment, radiation oncology, OSCE in COVID-19 era.