Does the gender of the standardised patient influence candidate performance in an objective structured clinical examination?

Context  The objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) requires the use of standardised patients (SPs). Recruitment of SPs can be challenging and factors assumed to be neutral may vary between SPs. On stations that are considered gender‐neutral, either male or female SPs may be used. This may...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Medical education 2009-06, Vol.43 (6), p.521-525
Main Authors: Humphrey-Murto, Susan, Touchie, Claire, Wood, Timothy J, Smee, Sydney
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological and medical sciences
Canada
Clinical Competence - standards
Education, Medical, Undergraduate - methods
Education, Medical, Undergraduate - standards
Female
Health participants
Humans
Male
Medical sciences
Miscellaneous
Patient Simulation
Physical Examination
Public health. Hygiene
Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine
Sex Factors
Statistics as Topic
Students, Medical - psychology
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Summary:Context  The objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) requires the use of standardised patients (SPs). Recruitment of SPs can be challenging and factors assumed to be neutral may vary between SPs. On stations that are considered gender‐neutral, either male or female SPs may be used. This may lead to an increase in measurement error. Prior studies on SP gender have often confounded gender with case. Objective  The objective of this study was to assess whether a variation in SP gender on the same case resulted in a systematic difference in student scores. Methods  At the University of Ottawa, 140 Year 3 medical students participated in a 10‐station OSCE. Two physical examination stations were selected for study because they were perceived to be ‘gender‐neutral’. One station involved the physical examination of the back and the other of the lymphatic system. On each of the study stations, male and female SPs were randomly allocated. Results  There was no difference in mean scores on the back examination station for students with female (6.96/10.00) versus male (7.04/10.00) SPs (P = 0.713). However, scores on the lymphatic system examination station showed a significant difference, favouring students with female (8.30/10.00) versus male (7.41/10.00) SPs (P 
ISSN:0308-0110
1365-2923
DOI:10.1111/j.1365-2923.2009.03336.x