Using a station within an objective structured clinical examination to assess interprofessional competence performance among undergraduate nursing students

Abstract

Aim/Objective To describe and analyse the use of a station within an OSCE to assess interprofessional competence performance in undergraduate nursing students.

Background Teamwork competencies are key to improving patient safety and avoiding medical errors. The World Health Organization recommends starting to develop these competencies in university studies, through interprofessional education. There are numerous programmes in universities all over the world, but more research is needed on the assessment of interprofessional education activities, preferably through objective methods. Competency performance can be assessed by an external evaluator, in a simulated environment, with the Objective Structured Clinical Examination, which is widely used in nursing.

Design Cross-sectional study.

Methods 63 second-year nursing undergraduate students completed an interprofessional competencies station within an 8-station OSCE. Communication, Roles and Responsibility and Teamwork competences were assessed. The Interprofessional Collaborator Assessment Rubric (ICAR) was used as a model to assess the performance of students. Inter-observer concordance analysis was performed using the kappa coefficient and the concordance rate.

Results 92.1% of students reached a good level in communication competence, 88.9% in roles and responsibility competence, and 55.6% in teamwork competence. The global concordance rate was 83.8%, and the kappa coefficient was 0.67.

Conclusions Most students have demonstrated interprofessional competence performance at a good level. However, the inter-observer concordance obtained for some of the items was not as expected.

The assessment of interprofessional competencies, as it deals mainly with relational and communicative aspects, requires greater preparation both in terms of the specification of assessment items and in agreement between examiners.