Planning and Implementing Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) as a Clinical Examination Method in Mental Health Nursing: Perceptions of Undergraduate Nursing Students in Oman; A Pilot Study

Objective: The main objective was to explore the perceptions of undergraduate nursing students on OSCE as a method of clinical evaluation in mental health nursing clinical examination and to compare the scores of written clinical examination and OSCE in mental health nursing. Method: A quantitative research using descriptive survey design was done among Baccalaureate Nursing students enrolled for Mental Health Nursing Clinical Course, NURS 3017 in the spring 2018. Pierre et al’s (2004) OSCE evaluation questionnaire was used to assess student’s perception about OSCE. Results: A paired t test was conducted to compare the scores of OSCE and final written clinical examination. There was a significant difference in the mean scores of OSCE (Mean=31.03, SD=3.05) and written clinical examination (Mean=29.67, SD=3.35); t=2.24, p=.031. These results suggests that students scored better in OSCE as compared to written clinical examination. The perception of the students towards OSCE as a clinical examination method shows that 51% of the students prefer OSCE over clinical written examination. Conclusions: It is a mandatory requirement for nurse educators today to have a patient safety curriculum. OSCE gives a fair chance to all the students to go through same process of evaluation and examiners can make sure every student has learned necessary skills appropriately to provide comprehensive care in the respective field. Hence OSCE should be integrated with other method of clinical evaluation in mental health nursing education in Oman.