Oral interview in place of traditional objective structured clinical examinations for assessing placement readiness in nutrition and dietetics education.

Aim: Objective structured clinical examinations have long been used in dietetics education. This observational study aims to describe the development, deployment, feasibility and validity of assessment using an oral interview in place of traditional objective structured clinical examinations, and to determine the ability of this assessment to identify students who are either not ready for placement or may require early support and/or remediation.

Methods: Student assessment data were collected over a two-and-a-half-year period and used to test the predictive ability of an oral interview to determine dietetic placement outcomes and highlight a need for early remediation.