Introduction of undergraduate nursing students to an objective structured clinical examination

BACKGROUND: The Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) is used increasingly in nursing education. The purpose of this article is to report on the qualitative evaluation of the first implementation of a medication administration OSCE within an Australian school of nursing. METHOD: A two-stage data gathering strategy was undertaken. The first stage was to survey participants\u27 pre-OSCE and the second stage involved surveying the same participants\u27 immediately post-OSCE. A constant comparison analysis method was used. RESULTS: The first stage data analysis (pre-OSCE) were classified into three themes: (a) Student Anxiety, (b) Student Preparedness, and (c) The Effectiveness of This Style of Assessment. The three key themes from the second stage (post-OSCE) analysis were: (a) Feelings Toward the OSCE, (b) Assessor Interaction, and (c) The OSCE Environment. CONCLUSION: Although they found it stressful, the participants valued the OSCE experience. The OSCE gave the students confidence in their capabilities of medication management