Abstract
Background: During the COVID 19 lockdown in 2020, conventional OSCEs were no longer an option for nursing schools due to the requirement for isolation and social distancing. A university in New Zealand changed from their usual practice of onsite OSCE to assess physical examination skills, to a video captured OSCE.
Aim: To explore and describe advanced practice nursing students (ApN) and an examiner's experience of a video captured OSCE.
Methods: A qualitative descriptive design involving semi-structured interviews with four ApN students and one examiner from a Health Assessment and Advanced Nursing practice course in a university in New Zealand.
Data analysis: Data was an analysed using Braun and Clarke's (2006) approach to thematic analysis.
Findings: The students experienced a range of emotions associated with the OSCE. The most prominent one was that students found the video captured OSCEs less stressful and nerve racking than with onsite OSCEs. There were both advantages and challenges of a video captured OSCE for both the students and the examiner. For the students, the allowance for numerous takes was an advantage which may also help them with learning due to repetition. A notable challenge for the students was getting the right camera angle, lighting, and audio to ensure everything was recorded. The examiner found marking the video captured OSCE to be relaxing upon noticing the students were less anxious. The examiner also identified not being able to assess other body systems due to unavailability of equipment to be a challenge.
Conclusion: A video captured OSCE may be a feasible alternative to onsite OSCEs especially in times of a global pandemic such as COVID 19. There is the possibility that video captured OSCEs may be beneficial for conventional use, not just in contact isolation situations.