The evaluation of clinical competence through a Web-OSCE: an application experience

Abstract

Introduction: The pandemic caused by SARS-Cov-2 has modified the teaching of medicine. The Structured Objective Clinical Examination (OSCE) is one of the strategies that has the greatest validity evidence to assess clinical competence, however, in Mexico there is no experience in applying it remotely (Web-OSCE).
Objective: to evaluate the degree of clinical competence of first-year resident physicians of the family medicine specialty through a Web-OSCE, comparing the origin of admission (ENARM vs ECA) and, according to the results, to be able to implement this remote evaluation.
Method: Observational and comparative study. The population consisted of 20 resident physicians, two groups were formed, 10 from the ENARM and 10 from the ECA, from various Health Institutions recognized by the Family Medicine Branch of the UNAM. The instrument used was a 4-station Web-ECOE.
Results: First-year family medicine residents generally show an acceptable degree of clinical competence in four common diseases of the first-level medical practice. The highest scores were for the diabetes mellitus and arterial hypertension stations and those with the lowest scores were the depression and obesity. Residents of the ENARM tend to obtain higher scoresin clinical competencies than residents of the ECA program.
Conclusions: The residents from the ENARM had better scores in clinical competencies than the residents from the ECA. Carrying out a Web-OSCE made it possible to assess the clinical competence of the residents. It is recommended to continue with the use of the Web-OSCE in graduate programs to assess clinical competence in a more comprehensive way.