The use of interprofessional peer examiners in an objective structured clinical examination: Can dental students act as examiners?

Objective To assess whether final year dental students could act as reliabl e examiners within an Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) by c omparison with results obtained by an experienced member of staff. Design A station testing examination of the mouth was included in the secon d year medical undergraduate summative OSCE examination. Setting Concurrently run in three different examination venues on the Ninew ells Hospital campus. Subjects 147 medical students and 3 pairs (A, B, C) of examiners. Each exam ining pairing consisted of one member of staff and one dental student (blin d to each other's marking). Method A checklist of 13 tasks to be performed was provided to the examiner s. One mark awarded for a completed task, no mark for no attempt at the tas k, and half a mark for attempt at task. Results Paired results were available for 125 medical students. Using Mann- Witney analysis, the non-parametric 95% confidence intervals for the differ ence in scores between the 3 paired teams were group A (-0.5, 0), group B ( -0.5, 0.5), group C (-0.5, 0). In only 4 students (out of 125) did the diff erence between the individual pair differ by 2 or more marks. Conclusion On the basis of this pilot study final year dental students may be used as examiners in OSCEs where basic technical skills are to be evalua ted. This development from peer group teaching provides further evidence su pportive of interprofessional education.