Objective Structured Clinical Examinations for Development of Professional Competency

Health and social service professions have a demand for learners to master a broad variety of clinical competencies within a short amount of time. Increasingly, complex health care environments require that students arrive at their clinical education placements with a strong set of skills. We developed a set of Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) to supplement existing assessment in an entry-level clinical doctoral program in occupational therapy (Krusen & Rollins, 2019). OSCEs are a series of brief stations in which learners show how to complete tasks representative of professional competencies (Miller, 1990). Our intent was to prepare learners to transition from didactic coursework to fieldwork with minimal difficulty. Across professions, clinical education may be referred to as fieldwork, practice placement, internship, practica, residency, or affiliation. We use the term fieldwork in this chapter. We also use the terms student and learner interchangeably.