STUDENTS' PERCEPTION ON 'OBJECTIVE STRUCTURED PRACTICAL EXAMINATION (OSPE)' IN INTERNAL ASSESSMENT EXAMINATION OF ANATOMY

Abstract

Rationale: The new 2019 entrants of the UG medical education in India, are the first batch to face the Competency based education module as
published by India. Nation-wise Medical Council of India (MCI) has made paradigm shift from the traditional ways of teaching-learningassessment
system to the Competency based teaching-learning-assessment system. Anatomy, being the subject of the Phase 1 MBBS, is one of the
major discipline, is maintain the competency module from the very first day of this session. As guided as aligned to the competency module,
Objective Structured Practical examination (OSPE) comes out as the tool to be implemented in the Assessment programme. So for the very first
time in West Bengal, the total Anatomy practical examination of 100 marks has been carried on in OSPE in the Department of Anatomy in IPGME
& R, Kolkata very recently. Students' perceptions have been collected after they appeared in the Examination system.
Objective: To assess the students' perception on participating in the OSPE in the Internal assessment Examination in Anatomy.
Methodology: OSPE have been conducted with 10 tables incorporating histology, embryology, Osteology, cadaver ID, window dissection, surface
marking, and radiology & cross sectional anatomy. Amongst 10 stations, six stations were observed station. Students have been assessed with preformed
check list as fits to the Learning objectives. Students' perceptions have been collected with a prevalidated prestructured questionnaire and
their responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics.
Result: majority of the students perceived that the tasks were uniform, assessment were biasfree, aligned to their learning objectives, and the
examination system has not imparted any stress on them to face.
Conclusion: the traditional Practical examination majorly never been directed to be in any structured fashion. As a result the questions asked to the
students get often differed from candidate to candidate. These modalities of assessment more often targets to the “knows” or “knows how” level of
Miller's pyramid (competency level) and seldom achieves to the “shows how” or “does” level. So as per the guidelines laid by MCI, as well as
aligned in the present CBME based module in Anatomy, OSPE can be successfully implemented with a proper structured fashion.