Identification of factors associated with performance in objective structured clinical examination in Rouen medical school

Context. - Objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) became a national exam at the end of medical studies in France. The aim of this study was to identify the predictive factors for success at OSCEs. Methods. - Aurvey query after the OSCEs was completed by fifth-year medicine students at Rouen Uuniversity.. Data on continuous variables were compared using the Mann-Whitney test. Data on quantitative variables were compared using the Spearman's correlation. Results. - Two hundred and thirty-nine students, i.e., 98.7 % of the students, responded to the query. The median (IQR 25-75) OSCE score was 13.6/20 (12.5-14.2). Students' personal factors significantly associated with a higher OSCE performance were female sex (median score of 13.7 versus 13.4; P = 0.03) and good health during the clerkship (median score of 13.6 versus 12.6; P = 0.02). A higher OSCE performance was associated with an increased number (& GE;6) of medicine clerkships (median score of 13.8 versus 13.3; P = 0.02) and a decreased number (< 3) of surgery clerkships (median score of 13.7 versus 12.9; P = 0.009). There was no correlation between the OSCE score and medical school performance (Spearman's correlation, r = 0.24). Conclusion. - Homogenization of student's clerkships, assistance to students with health problems seem to be teaching approaches to promote success at OSCEs.(c) 2022 Societe Nationale Franc , aise de Medecine Interne (SNFMI). Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.