Objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs) as a summative evaluation tool in a ruminant health management rotation for final-year DVM students.

The objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) has been used for 10 years at the Ontario Veterinary College, University of Guelph, to evaluate the clinical competencies in ruminant health management of final-year DVM students. The performance of these students in the summative assessment, which includes the use of OSCEs, was compared to their formative assessment, given at the end of the rotation. Specifically, classification of students' performance as poor (bottom 10% of the grade range versus "serious deficits") or superior ("A grade" versus "exceeds expectations") was compared. Agreement between the two types of assessment is slight, regardless of whether assessing diagnostic process skills or technical skills--and regardless of whether all students were assessed or only those enrolled in food-animal or mixed streams in their final year--which suggests that the two assess different types of skills. OSCEs are a useful and viable tool for objectively assessing clinical skills in ruminant health management.