The application of objective structured clinical examinations for evaluating clinical internship in long-term clinical medical students in China

BackgroundClinical internship plays a vital role in enhancing medical students’ theoretical knowledge, clinical operational abilities, and clinical thinking development. This study aims to establish an efficient evaluation system to assess interns’ proficiency in clinical skills, and analyze the tea...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Miao Yang, Yao Liu, Yuhan Dong, Yang Ding, Zhibing Lu, Mingxia Yu, Xingxing He
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2025-07-01
Series:Frontiers in Education
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feduc.2025.1594705/full
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1849320576404946944
author Miao Yang
Yao Liu
Yuhan Dong
Yang Ding
Zhibing Lu
Mingxia Yu
Xingxing He
author_facet Miao Yang
Yao Liu
Yuhan Dong
Yang Ding
Zhibing Lu
Mingxia Yu
Xingxing He
author_sort Miao Yang
collection DOAJ
description BackgroundClinical internship plays a vital role in enhancing medical students’ theoretical knowledge, clinical operational abilities, and clinical thinking development. This study aims to establish an efficient evaluation system to assess interns’ proficiency in clinical skills, and analyze the teaching effectiveness of clinical internships.MethodsThis is a retrospective descriptive study. A total of 75 long-term clinical medical students, including 26 eight-year students and 49 “5 + 3” students, who had already completed a 3-month clinical internship in internal medicine, participated in an Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE). Four stations during the OSCE included history taking, abdominal physical examination, thoracentesis, and interpretation of auxiliary examination results. Both candidates and examiners voluntarily completed anonymous Likert scale questionnaire immediately after the OSCE. Results were analyzed using the Chi-square test and the t-test as appropriate.ResultsIn history taking station, new examiners awarded significantly higher scores compared to examiners with experience in conducting examinations (t = 6.21, p < 0.0001). “5 + 3” candidates scored significantly higher than 8-year clinical medicine doctoral program candidates in physical examination and thoracentesis station (t = 5.316, p < 0.0001; and t = 2.145, p = 0.0353, respectively). According to the questionnaire survey, the majority of candidates and all examiners were quite satisfied with its design, organization, quality and effectiveness. More than half of the candidates and examiners believed that insufficient practice and inadequate preparation for revision were the factors most likely to affect performance. 75% of the examiners felt that candidates needed the most training in operative steps and content, but only 56 and 40% of the candidates agreed with this view. Furthermore, 56% of candidates and half of the examiners identified operational methods and humanistic care as areas that still required intensive improvement.ConclusionThis study is an effective attempt to construct an OSCE evaluation system for the skills of long-term clinical medical students in the internship stage. This system can objectively and comprehensively reflect the students’ clinical skills, promote the realization of evaluation feedback and quality management of clinical internship teaching, which can be promoted in the evaluation of clinical internship.
format Article
id doaj-art-796fa52cf011484f903d0964abfcf634
institution Kabale University
issn 2504-284X
language English
publishDate 2025-07-01
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
record_format Article
series Frontiers in Education
spelling doaj-art-796fa52cf011484f903d0964abfcf6342025-08-20T03:50:01ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Education2504-284X2025-07-011010.3389/feduc.2025.15947051594705The application of objective structured clinical examinations for evaluating clinical internship in long-term clinical medical students in ChinaMiao Yang0Yao Liu1Yuhan Dong2Yang Ding3Zhibing Lu4Mingxia Yu5Xingxing He6Teaching Office, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei, ChinaDepartment of Gastroenterology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei, ChinaTeaching Office, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei, ChinaDepartment of Gastroenterology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei, ChinaDepartment of Cardiology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei, ChinaDepartment of Laboratory Medicine, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei, ChinaDepartment of Gastroenterology, Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei, ChinaBackgroundClinical internship plays a vital role in enhancing medical students’ theoretical knowledge, clinical operational abilities, and clinical thinking development. This study aims to establish an efficient evaluation system to assess interns’ proficiency in clinical skills, and analyze the teaching effectiveness of clinical internships.MethodsThis is a retrospective descriptive study. A total of 75 long-term clinical medical students, including 26 eight-year students and 49 “5 + 3” students, who had already completed a 3-month clinical internship in internal medicine, participated in an Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE). Four stations during the OSCE included history taking, abdominal physical examination, thoracentesis, and interpretation of auxiliary examination results. Both candidates and examiners voluntarily completed anonymous Likert scale questionnaire immediately after the OSCE. Results were analyzed using the Chi-square test and the t-test as appropriate.ResultsIn history taking station, new examiners awarded significantly higher scores compared to examiners with experience in conducting examinations (t = 6.21, p < 0.0001). “5 + 3” candidates scored significantly higher than 8-year clinical medicine doctoral program candidates in physical examination and thoracentesis station (t = 5.316, p < 0.0001; and t = 2.145, p = 0.0353, respectively). According to the questionnaire survey, the majority of candidates and all examiners were quite satisfied with its design, organization, quality and effectiveness. More than half of the candidates and examiners believed that insufficient practice and inadequate preparation for revision were the factors most likely to affect performance. 75% of the examiners felt that candidates needed the most training in operative steps and content, but only 56 and 40% of the candidates agreed with this view. Furthermore, 56% of candidates and half of the examiners identified operational methods and humanistic care as areas that still required intensive improvement.ConclusionThis study is an effective attempt to construct an OSCE evaluation system for the skills of long-term clinical medical students in the internship stage. This system can objectively and comprehensively reflect the students’ clinical skills, promote the realization of evaluation feedback and quality management of clinical internship teaching, which can be promoted in the evaluation of clinical internship.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feduc.2025.1594705/fullmedical educationinternal medicineOSCEclinical internshipclinical skills
spellingShingle Miao Yang
Yao Liu
Yuhan Dong
Yang Ding
Zhibing Lu
Mingxia Yu
Xingxing He
The application of objective structured clinical examinations for evaluating clinical internship in long-term clinical medical students in China
Frontiers in Education
medical education
internal medicine
OSCE
clinical internship
clinical skills
title The application of objective structured clinical examinations for evaluating clinical internship in long-term clinical medical students in China
title_full The application of objective structured clinical examinations for evaluating clinical internship in long-term clinical medical students in China
title_fullStr The application of objective structured clinical examinations for evaluating clinical internship in long-term clinical medical students in China
title_full_unstemmed The application of objective structured clinical examinations for evaluating clinical internship in long-term clinical medical students in China
title_short The application of objective structured clinical examinations for evaluating clinical internship in long-term clinical medical students in China
title_sort application of objective structured clinical examinations for evaluating clinical internship in long term clinical medical students in china
topic medical education
internal medicine
OSCE
clinical internship
clinical skills
url https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feduc.2025.1594705/full
work_keys_str_mv AT miaoyang theapplicationofobjectivestructuredclinicalexaminationsforevaluatingclinicalinternshipinlongtermclinicalmedicalstudentsinchina
AT yaoliu theapplicationofobjectivestructuredclinicalexaminationsforevaluatingclinicalinternshipinlongtermclinicalmedicalstudentsinchina
AT yuhandong theapplicationofobjectivestructuredclinicalexaminationsforevaluatingclinicalinternshipinlongtermclinicalmedicalstudentsinchina
AT yangding theapplicationofobjectivestructuredclinicalexaminationsforevaluatingclinicalinternshipinlongtermclinicalmedicalstudentsinchina
AT zhibinglu theapplicationofobjectivestructuredclinicalexaminationsforevaluatingclinicalinternshipinlongtermclinicalmedicalstudentsinchina
AT mingxiayu theapplicationofobjectivestructuredclinicalexaminationsforevaluatingclinicalinternshipinlongtermclinicalmedicalstudentsinchina
AT xingxinghe theapplicationofobjectivestructuredclinicalexaminationsforevaluatingclinicalinternshipinlongtermclinicalmedicalstudentsinchina
AT miaoyang applicationofobjectivestructuredclinicalexaminationsforevaluatingclinicalinternshipinlongtermclinicalmedicalstudentsinchina
AT yaoliu applicationofobjectivestructuredclinicalexaminationsforevaluatingclinicalinternshipinlongtermclinicalmedicalstudentsinchina
AT yuhandong applicationofobjectivestructuredclinicalexaminationsforevaluatingclinicalinternshipinlongtermclinicalmedicalstudentsinchina
AT yangding applicationofobjectivestructuredclinicalexaminationsforevaluatingclinicalinternshipinlongtermclinicalmedicalstudentsinchina
AT zhibinglu applicationofobjectivestructuredclinicalexaminationsforevaluatingclinicalinternshipinlongtermclinicalmedicalstudentsinchina
AT mingxiayu applicationofobjectivestructuredclinicalexaminationsforevaluatingclinicalinternshipinlongtermclinicalmedicalstudentsinchina
AT xingxinghe applicationofobjectivestructuredclinicalexaminationsforevaluatingclinicalinternshipinlongtermclinicalmedicalstudentsinchina