Introduction of Undergraduate Nursing Students to an Objective Structured Clinical Examination

The Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) is used increasingly in nursing education. The purpose of this article is to report on the qualitative evaluation of the first implementation of a medication administration OSCE within an Australian school of nursing.A two-stage data gathering strategy was undertaken. The first stage was to survey participants' pre-OSCE and the second stage involved surveying the same participants' immediately post-OSCE. A constant comparison analysis method was used.The first stage data analysis (pre-OSCE) were classified into three themes: (a) Student Anxiety, (b) Student Preparedness, and (c) The Effectiveness of This Style of Assessment. The three key themes from the second stage (post-OSCE) analysis were: (a) Feelings Toward the OSCE, (b) Assessor Interaction, and (c) The OSCE Environment.Although they found it stressful, the participants valued the OSCE experience. The OSCE gave the students confidence in their capabilities of medication management. [J Nurs Educ. 2017;56(4):231-234.].