How can we better assess clinical reasoning skills in students?

In recent surveys, respondents have told NBME that educators value OSCEs that teach and assess clinical reasoning, and that there are several areas through which OSCEs can be enhanced.

Knowing how integral collaboration needed to be to the process, our new Assessment Alliance initiative launched our first Creative Community, focused on OSCE for Clinical Reasoning to collectively develop solutions to address the issue areas pointed out in those surveys, and better promote and measure clinical reasoning using school-based OSCEs. Through this Creative Community, we hope to identify and develop incremental solutions that will:

Enhance the development, characterization and assessment of learner clinical reasoning skills
Present patient groups without bias or stereotypes
Minimize group differences in learner outcomes
Enable all institutions to better support learner skill development across the continuum of medical education and training

If you have questions or want to get involved in the next Creative Community, fill out our contact form here or reach out to creativecommunity@nbme.org.