Validity and Reliability of Combination of Observed Practice with Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) in Midwifery Final Exam

Objective: The assessment of midwifery competency in final examination is the one of the most important tests in midwifery educational course of students in bachelor’s degree. As objective structured clinical evaluation (OSCE) has become popular and is now part of the midwifery competency assessment, the current study was performed to determine the reliability and validity of the combination of observed practice with OSCE in the final examination of midwifery students.
Methods: A modified final examination model, combination of OSCE and observed practice, was planned in Midwifery Department of Babol University of Medical Sciences. Twenty-seven midwifery students who had passed all midwifery subjects participated in the study in May 2012. The OSCE examination consisted of 8 stations over 6 minutes each. Observed practice consisted of the observation of midwifery students’ competency in clinical settings; labor, delivery, and post-partum.
Results: The correlation coefficient between grade point average (GPA) with OSCE scores, observed practice scores, and modified exam model were 0.70(P<0.001), 0.61(P<0.01), 0.66 (P<0.01), respectively.
The correlation coefficient between the scores of two observers was significant for all stations and units. Cronbachs’ alpha ranged from 0.35 to 0.94.The correlation coefficient between the scores of two observers for modified exam model was 0.59 (P=0.002). The exam showed a high internal consistency and Cronbach’ alpha coefficient for all midwifery OSCE exams was 0.79.
Conclusion: The combination of observed practice with OSCE examination is a reliable method in assessing midwifery students' competence in final exam. Also, the modified final examination model is an acceptable alternative for traditional final examination.