Exame Clínico Objetivo Estruturado (ECOE) para avaliação dascompetências clínicas de estudantes da área da saúde: revisão integrativa da literatura

Abstract

The OSCE (Objective Structured Clinical Examination) is used to assess competencies and clinical skills of students and health professionals in scenarios that simulate real situations. Such examination has confirmed that it is a viable, reliable and valid assessment method. Therefore, OSCE has become habitual inevaluations based on clinical performance, particularly in examinations related to graduation, being incorporated as an important component of the new educational paradigm of clinical skills. In this context, this study aimed to identify available evidences in the literature about the applicability of the OSCE as educational and clinical evaluation tool at the process of teaching and learning associated to undergraduate students in the health field. For the execution of this work, we selected a relevant methodological reference for integrative literature review and itwas realized searches for selection of the articles in the databases MEDLINE, LILACS and SCOPUS. It was made a careful reading of titles and abstracts of the articles found. Scientific publications that presented an appropriate content to the main question and possibility of full access formed the final sample for evaluation, comprising 12 manuscripts, which were categorized in two groups: studies in which OSCE was considered an effective and valid method for the assessment of students clinical competence in a practical simulation, and studies in which OSCEwas considered a method able to presume students performance in the reality of clinical practice, that is, a predictive evaluation. This research contributed to the identification of evidences available in the literature about the effectiveness of OSCE as an educational assessment tool, demonstrating that the examination has been recognized as a reliable and valid strategy to evaluate clinical competence in the teaching and learning process of undergraduate students. Finally, it was foundthat OSCE is characterized as a method of meaningful benefits, but, the limitations concerning to the examination are also recognized.