Formative assessment of procedural skills: Students' responses to the objective structured clinical examination and the integrated performance procedural instrument

Abstract

Assessment of clinical skills is a critical element of undergraduate medical education. We compare a traditional approach to procedural skills assessment - the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) with the Integrated Performance Procedural Instrument (IPPI). In both approaches, students work through 'stations' or 'scenarios' undertaking defined tasks. In the IPPI, all tasks are contextualised, requiring students to integrate technical, communication and other professional skills. The aim of this study was to explore students' responses to these two assessments. Third-year medical students participated in formative OSCE and IPPI sessions on consecutive days. Although performance d..