Undertaking a face-to-face objective structured clinical examination for medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs) play a pivotal role in medical education assessment. The Advanced Clinical Skills (ACS) OSCE examines clinical skills in psychiatry, general practice, obstetrics and gynaecology and paediatrics. This study examined if the 2020 ACS OSCE for fourth year medical students attending the National University of Ireland, Galway, was associated with any significant result differences compared to the equivalent 2019 OSCE. Additionally, we assessed students' satisfaction and explored any organisational difficulties in conducting a face-to-face OSCE during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study compared anonymised data between the 2019 and 2020 ACS OSCEs and analysed anonymised student feedback pertaining to the modified 2020 OSCE. The mean total ACS OSCE result achieved in 2020 was statistically higher compared to the 2019 OSCE [62.95% (SD = 6.21) v. 59.35% (SD = 5.54), This study demonstrates that conducting a face-to-face OSCE during the pandemic is feasible and associated with positive student feedback. Exam validity has been demonstrated as there was no difference in the overall pass rate.