Objective structured clinical examination in physiotherapy teaching: a systematic review

Introduction: Problems related to the clinical abilities of physiotherapy students are not always identified throughout the educational process and might only be observed when these future professionals have to treat patients. The Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) includes a problematization approach and can be used in Health Sciences teaching to help this identification before internship practices. However, there are few studies on its use in Physiotherapy. Objective: To gather evidence of the OSCE use to evaluate clinical abilities in Physiotherapy teaching. Method: Articles published from 2000 to 2016 were surveyed in the Biblioteca Virtual em Saude (BVS) (Virtual Health Library), Centro Latino-Americano e do Caribe de Informacao em Ciencias da Saude (BIREME) (Latin-American and Caribbean Health Sciences Information Center), PubMed, Scielo and Web of Science, using the descriptors “educational assessment”, “assessment methods”, “objective structured clinical examination”, “clinical competence”, “professional competence”, “clinical skills”, “student competence”, “student skills”, “physiotherapy” and the Booleans “OR” and “AND”. Results: The initial number of identified publications was 3,242. From these, seven were included in this review. Two studies were developed in Brazil, four in Australia and one in Canada. The studies were scored 7 to 12 regarding methodologic quality, and 1B and 2B regarding scientific evidence. Conclusion: Students’ clinical abilities were grouped into three classes: cognitive, psychomotor and affective, and four studies described their use. There is very little evidence of the use of OSCE, but the instrument can be applied to evaluate skills and competences in Physiotherapy teaching.