An evaluation of the Team Objective Structured Clinical Examination (TOSCE)

  1. Andrew Singleton,
  2. Frank Smith,
  3. Tess Harris,
  4. Rachel Ross-Harper,
  5. Sean Hilton

Article first published online: 4 JAN 2002

DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-2923.1999.00264.x

Issue

Medical Education

Medical Education

Volume 33, Issue 1, pages 34–41, January 1999

Additional Information

How to Cite

Singleton, A., Smith, F., Harris, T., Ross-Harper, R. and Hilton, S. (1999), An evaluation of the Team Objective Structured Clinical Examination (TOSCE). Medical Education, 33: 34–41. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2923.1999.00264.x

Author Information

  1. Division of General Practice and Primary Care, St George's Hospital Medical School, London SW17 0RE, UK

* Andrew Singleton Division of General Practice and Primary Care, Level 6 Hunter Wing, St George's Hospital Medical School, Cranmer Terrace, London SW17 0RE, UKFrank Smith Division of General Practice and Primary Care, Level 6 Hunter Wing, St George's Hospital Medical School, Cranmer Terrace, London SW17 0RE, UK

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 4 JAN 2002
  2. Article first published online: 4 JAN 2002
  3. editorial comments to authors

SEARCH

SEARCH BY CITATION

ARTICLE TOOLS

View Full Article (HTML) Get PDF (86K)

Keywords:

  • Education, measurement;
  • education, medical, undergraduate, methods;
  • evaluation studies;
  • patient simulation;
  • physical examination

Objectives

To evaluate the validity, reliability and feasibility of the TOSCE, a new means of formative assessment for medical students, from the perspectives of examiners, simulated patients and students.

Design

Teams of five students rotate through five clinical stations, performing one of four tasks in turn, whilst the fifth member of the team ‘rests’.

Setting

St George's Hospital Medical School, London.

Subjects

Third-year medical students, their examiners and simulated patients.

Results

All participants felt the TOSCE session had high validity although some students were unfamiliar with some subjects. Stations were double-marked and agreement rates and Cohen's Kappa ranged from 67 to 94% and 0·04–0·88, respectively. Analysis of the causes of disagreement led to improved marking schedules and enhanced reliability.

Conclusions

The feasibility of the exercise as a formative assessment was demonstrated by the confidence of the staff participating both as examiners and simulated patients and from the majority of students who welcomed the learning experience.

View Full Article (HTML) Get PDF (86K)