What do psychiatry residents think of an objective structured clinical examination?

Although interest is increasing in the use of Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) for the assessment of psychiatry residents, there are very few reports of the experiences and attitudes of residents to this for m of evaluation. Eighteen residents in psychiatry participated in an OSCE c onsisting of eight 12-minute sf standardized patient interviews. Of the 15 who completed a postexamination survey, 93% rated the scenarios as very rea listic and 80% considered the scenarios reflective of clinical situations t hey had experienced. The residents were very confident that such an examina tion could discriminate between incompetent and competent medical students, but the residents were less certain of the OSCE's power to do so between c ompetent and incompetent residents. While residents rejected the idea of su ch an OSCE for board certification, many felt they would like the experienc e to be a formative part of their training.