Undertaking a face to face Summative OSCE assessment during the COVID-19 Pandemic - a descriptive narrative

The 2020 Covid19 pandemic has caused significant disruption to medical education across the world. At the University of Sheffield final year medical students undertook a virtual OSCE via technology in order to graduate however for our Physician Associate course this was more problematic as following completion of the assessments at the university students are also required to pass a national examination with a formal Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE). Due to this it was felt that it was crucial to run an OSCE examination for our students on a face to face basis but within the context of managing the potential safety and risks inherent in doing so.

This piece of work describes the process of running the examination including detail which we feel will be useful to others who may seek to undertake examinations for the same reason within the current health emergency or any future such events. It is important to note that some innovations we put in place with respect to technology enhancing safety will remain for future OSCE examinations in any circumstances.