Practising physical therapists outperformed physical therapy students on a single-station simulated OSCE, supporting known-groups construct validity¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associational r1 · q2 · i3 large
Currency · newest study 2021 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person · overdue for a recheck since 2024: tool and model accuracy changes quickly

Subclaims¶

q2 i3 In a single-station simulated OSCE, practising physical therapists scored significantly better than physical therapy students on History & Clinical Examination (p = 0.009) and Clinical Reasoning (p = 0.03), with effect sizes of 1.9 and 1.3. → Bobos Pavlos 2021

Evidence¶

Bobos Pavlos 2021¶

Bobos Pavlos, Pouliopoulou Dimitra V., Harriss Alexandra, Sadi Jackie, Rushton Alison, MacDermid Joy C. (2021). A systematic review and meta-analysis of measurement properties of objective structured clinical examinations used in physical therapy licensure and a structured review of licensure practices in countries with well-developed regulation systems. PLoS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0255696

q2 · i3 · associational · r1

Single longitudinal simulation study (Ladyshewsky et al. 2000) comparing 12 undergrad physical therapy students with 4 practising physical therapists on a single-station OSCE. Printed effect sizes were 1.9 and 1.3, with "p = 0.009 and p = 0.03"; practising therapists "performed significantly better than physical therapy students".

"The effect size was 1.9 and 1.3 for the History and Clinical Examination Part and the Clinical Reasoning Part respectively. The p value was statistically significant for History & Clinical Examination and Clinical Reasoning (p = 0.009 and p = 0.03) respectively indicating that practicing physical therapists performed significantly better than physical therapy students."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Canada (excluding Quebec) is the only country of 17 requiring a clinical competency examination for licensure of domestic physical therapy graduates — related
• A six-station sport medicine OSCE showed high reliability and construct validity, with senior residents outscoring junior residents — related
• OSCEs used with physical therapy students show weak internal consistency, with a pooled Cronbach's alpha of 0.55 below the acceptable range — related