Assessment of Communication Skills with an OSCE among First Year Medical Students

In order to determine if first year medical students of a Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology course have adopted basic physician patient communication skills, we developed an appropriate Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE). The parcours took place in a pretest condition (n=182) and in the following semester under test condition, now relevant for passing the course (n=181). Reliability of the OSCE reached a medium degree (alpha=0.55/0.50). Results of written examinations and OSCE scores were weakly correlated. The correlation between task competence and patient-centeredness was higher in the pretest than under test condition. Female students mostly achieved higher scores than male students. Nearly all of the students (92%/97%) were in favor of continuing this examination. Physician-patient communication is a process of high complexity, but it can be tested by OSCE. Relevance for passing the course seems to enhance the learning behaviour.