OSCE with Virtual Simulation of Clinical Cases Was Piloted at TNMU as Implementation of the SAFEMED+ Project Results

On December 4 and 8, 2023, 4th-5th-year students of the International Students’ Faculty of I. Horbachevsky Ternopil National Medical University for the first time took the OSCE with a virtual simulation of clinical cases (computer-based case simulation OSCE). This approach was developed as a result of the participation of our teachers in the SAFEMED+ project “Simulation In Undergraduate Medical Education For Improvement Of Safety And Quality Of Patient Care” of the Erasmus+ KA2 CBHE program.

During the exam, 5th-year students successively passed 12 stations in internal medicine (3 stations), paediatrics (3 stations), obstetrics and gynaecology (2 stations), surgery (2 stations), anaesthesiology and infectious diseases. 4th-year students passed stations in internal medicine (3 stations), paediatrics (3 stations), surgery (2 stations), neurology (2 stations), urology and psychiatry. The Moodle platform was used to conduct the exam.

Tasks in the form of virtual cases were developed for the exam. Each case included 5-8 questions according to the clinical situation. Students had 8 minutes to complete one station.

Preparing virtual cases is a difficult task that requires a creative approach, a good knowledge of Moodle, and an understanding of which components of students’ professional competencies can be tested. Therefore, in order to prepare high-quality scenarios, the teachers attended the advanced training pedagogical courses “New approaches in OSCE organization and conduction. Application of computer technologies at OSCE stations”.

The working group on the OSCE organization and conduction, consisting of the leading specialist of the interdepartmental educational and training centre Nadia Pasiaka, TNMU Associate Professors Natalia Haliyash, Natalia Petrenko and Natalia Bilkevych, together with the Dean of the International Students’ Faculty, Prof. Maria Marushchak and Vice-Dean, Assoc. Prof. Anton Hantimurov provided all the preparatory work and held organizational meetings with students to explain the specifics of taking this exam, as well as answer all their questions.

It was a new experience for the students, as the case questions had a different format than usual and gave an opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge in evaluating additional examination methods, developing a treatment plan, drawing up a questioning plan, etc. The survey offered at the end of the exam demonstrated good student acceptance of this exam format.

Given that the organization and conduction of OSCE is a labour-intensive, time-consuming and resource-intensive process, the experience of conducting OSCE with virtual simulation of clinical cases is important. This may make it possible to transfer certain stations, in particular those related to testing such components of the students’ clinical competence as clinical thinking, the ability to apply a diagnostic algorithm, to prescribe treatment, to navigate ethical/legal issues, into a virtual format.

We express our appreciation to all the teachers who participated in the creation of the cases, and to Anton Chernetskyi for his technical assistance. Special thanks to Akaki Sepashvili from Tbilisi Medical Academy, who shared his experience of organizing a computer-based case simulation OSCE for his students. We express our gratitude to the partners of the SAFEMED+ project for their fruitful cooperation, and to the administration of our university for their constant support of our initiatives.

The information was provided by the working group on OSCE organization and conduction at TNMU.

Photographs by the authors.