Ability of the objective structured clinical examination to differentiate surgical residents, medical students, and physician assistant students.

Background: The Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) has been used extensively to evaluate the clinical abilities of medical students and residents. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the standard OSCE would differentiate performance of subjects with different levels and/or types of training.

Methods: We conducted a blinded OSCE, during which we simultaneously evaluated surgical residents from all 5 years of the general surgery training program, third-year medical students, and second-year physician assistant students.