Standardised clients as assessors in a veterinary communication OSCE: a reliability and validity study.

In human medicine, standardised patients (SP) have been shown to reliably and accurately assess learners' communication performance in high-stakes certification Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCE), offering a feasible way to reduce the need for recruitment, time commitment and coordination of faculty assessors. In this study, we evaluated the use of standardised clients (SC) as a viable option for assessing veterinary students' communication performance. We designed a four-station, two-track communication skills OSCE. SC assessors used an adapted nine-item Liverpool Undergraduate Communication Assessment Scale (LUCAS). Faculty used a 21-item checklist derived from the Calgary-Cambridge Guide (CCG) and a five-point global rating scale. Participants were second year veterinary students (n=96). For the four stations, intrastation reliability (α) ranged from 0.63 to 0.82 for the LUCAS, and 0.73 to 0.87 for the CCG. The interstation reliability coefficients were 0.85 for the LUCAS and 0.89 for the CGG. The calculated Generalisability (G) coefficients were 0.62 for the LUCAS and 0.60 for the CGG. Supporting construct validity, SC and faculty assessors showed a significant correlation between the LUCAS and CCG total percent scores (r=0.45, P<0.001), and likewise between the LUCAS and global rating scores (r=0.49, P<0.001).Study results support that SC assessors offer a reliable and valid approach for assessing veterinary communication OSCE.

Use of simulations to assess the injury evaluation and management skills of advanced student athletic therapists at a Canadian university.

Simulations can provide exposure to cases that might not present themselves during a practicum assignment or rotation, allow students to make decisions without risk to a real patient, expose students to critical situations requiring a rapid response, allow students to observe the consequences (good or bad) of their management choices, and provide training to maintain infrequently used skills. Simulation has been used in a variety of medical fields such as anesthesia, emergency medicine, military trauma medicine, intensive care, trauma, and surgical critical care. Within athletic training (athletic therapy, in Canada), simulations might maximize the retention of knowledge, could increase the number of clinical experiences encountered, and aid in the transfer of training to real-life settings. Simulations could also be used as a method for evaluating student performance and assessing whether instructional objectives have been met. The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the use of simulations for the formative assessment of student athletic therapists enrolled in a Canadian University athletic therapy program.