Structured examinations of clinical competence - £2.00

A variety of formats for assessing clinical competence have been developed over the years and in this extended paper, Boursicot and colleagues review the classic long and short case formats as well as describing newer formats such as the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) and Objective Long Case Examination Record. The authors describe the stages of planning and implementing OSCEs and offer practical advice on blueprinting, station development, examiner and simulated patient training, organisational issues and standard setting.