Perceptions of appropriate appearance in the OSCE: a mixed study analysing viewpoints of students and examiners.

摘要

'Evidence based dressing' (Nair et al. 2002) represents the acknowledgement by the medical profession of the importance of appearance in the medical environment. The OSCE, an assessment tool, is widely used to simulate this environment, e.g. consultations. We aimed to determine if student and examiner groups had similar views on appropriate appearance in the OSCE. We developed and piloted online questionnaires informed by literature review for each group. Participants were asked to grade their degree of agreement to statements using a likeit scale (strongly agree, tend to agree, neither agree or disagree, tend to disagree and strongly disagree). Statements centred on topics identified at review and included: formal versus casual clothing, religious attire, piercings/jewellery, tattoos and, for students only, infection control. Open questions followed each topic to allow participants to explain their choices.