Resumen de Evaluation of professional competences: Can we correlate the final rating of a multiple choice traditional test wit the specific competences evaluation?

Asunción Pino Vázquez, H. González García, María Begoña Coco Martín, Rubén Cuadrado Asensio, Agustín Mayo Iscar, Elena Urbaneja Rodríguez, Alberto López Miguel, C. Villa Francisco, Miguel J. Maldonado Lopez, C. Medina

• The accumulation of knowledge, likewise the acquisition of skills, are continuous processes and indefinite in time. Health education requires a corporation not only of knowledge, but also skills, attitudes and values needed to become a future prepared professional. The development of skills in the area of health sciences are composed of a complex educational process where suitable strategies for a comprehensive assessment of the skills to be acquired. However, traditionally, this assessment is based on the measurement of knowledge through the application of various types of tests: multiple choice questions and short questions, that not always are idoneous having into account the criteria of objectivity, validity and reliability . This situation has led to the urgent need to develop new educational and evaluation methods, to assess clinical competencies.

  Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) is a test designed to assess clinical skills. The value to change this assessment is to reflect the importance of learning that takes place and that is necessary and not just what students know for the final evaluation. The power of this test lies in the mixture of assessment methods: it is able to explore three of the four levels of the Miller pyramid: knowledge, know how and show how. The OSCE consists of a circuit of stations that allow the teacher to observe the student interaction with patients, to certify their clinical skills, thinking skills, problem solving skills, integrating diagnosis and communication and interpersonal skills, a comprehensive assessment which requires any professional.