Abstract
The ability and attitude of pharmacy students in clinical communication should be assessed before their clerkship in the clinical setting. Designed for this purpose, the objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) was tried out for the first time on graduate students taking the Master's course in clinical pharmacy with the cooperation of medical faculty staff. The students took the OSCE after completing a course in communication skills.
Four typical scenarios of communication between patient and pharmacist were provided to assess examinee's performance as follows : (1) patient interview, (2) explanation of how to wash hands for disinfection, (3) explanation of peak flow meter to patients with asthma, and (4) explanation of how to apply an eye drop solution. In these situations, eight examinees took the role of the pharmacist in communicating with standardized patients (SP) whose parts were played by medical faculty staff and junior students.
The examiners and observers had well understood the purpose of OSCE in communication education. Many were of the opinion that students were able to understand the importance of communication with patients by performing in front of the examiners. These opinions suggest that the OSCE would make students more motivated to learn communication skills and that it would be useful in pharmacy education. OSCE which was tried by us was assessed by the questionnaires to all participants ; observers, examiners, and examinees.
