Assessment methodObjective Assessment of Complex Skills Using OSPE Examinations

In VETS3070, we use multiple Objective Structured Practical Examinations (OSPEs) to evaluate student procedural skills. The first OSPE assesses clinical examination skills and the second OSPE examines surgical and anesthesia skills. In both examinations, complex procedures which are considered impossible to assess without significant subjectivity were dissected into discrete components that could be objectively assessed. Although the assessment described was used in a medical teaching context, the idea of deconstructing complex procedures into individually assessable, objective bites of assessment can be applied to any discipline.

Candidate competency at performing a procedural task is challenging to quantify. Competency is, by nature, a subjective quantity. Determining if a candidate has completed a task "adequately" versus "with a high degree of competency" can be nearly impossible, especially when multiple examiners are assessing similar procedures but with different candidates. The benefit of the OSPE format comes from the key components of objective and structured. When properly designed, the OSPE can be very effective at limiting subjectivity in assessment resulting in greater consistency in marking. For the clinical examination of species OSPE, students are given a fixed period of time during which they must complete an examination of a particular region of an animal (insufficient time is available for them to complete a comprehensive clinical examination). The marking rubrics and procedures are provided to the students early in the semester -many weeks prior to the assessment. For each component of the task, a mark is assigned based on the skill with which the task was completed and whether the task was completed safely. In order to pass the examination, the student must obtain a passing average mark and not perform any task that will have placed themselves or the patient at risk of harm. For the surgery and anaesthesia OSPE, students work through a series of stations where skills such as suturing or anaesthetic machine maintenance are assessed. Similar to the clinical examination OSPE, procedures examined at each station are assessed by marking individual components of the procedure.