CARECOS study: Medical students' empathy as assessed with the CARE measure by examiners versus standardized patients during a formative Objective and Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) station.

Purpose: To assess the Consultation And Relational Empathy (CARE) measure as a tool for examiners to assess medical students' empathy during Objective and Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs), as the best tool for assessing empathy during OSCEs remains unknown.

Methods: We first assessed the psychometric properties of the CARE measure, completed simultaneously by examiners and standardized patients (SP, either teachers - SP - or civil society members - SP), for each student, at the end of an OSCE station. We then assessed the qualitative/quantitative agreement between examiners and SP.

Results: We included 129 students, distributed in eight groups, four groups for each SP type. The CARE measure showed satisfactory psychometric properties in the context of the study but moderate, and even poor inter-rater reliability for some items. Considering paired observations, examiners scored lower than SPs ( < 0.001) regardless of the SP type. However, the difference in score was greater when the SP was a SP rather than a SP ( < 0.01).

Conclusion: Despite acceptable psychometric properties, inter-rater reliability of the CARE measure between examiners and SP was unsatisfactory. The choice of examiner as well as the type of SP seems critical to ensure a fair measure of empathy during OSCEs.