Kylie Rice¹
Jaeva Shelley¹ and Stephanie Banner¹
1 University of New England 

1. Background
Despite the widespread application of structured clinical assessments (or OSCEs) as a simulation-based evaluation tool across many healthcare disciplines, the application in professional psychology training programs has been considerably slower. Structured clinical assessments represent an important tool in the development of clinical competencies, where performance cannot be evaluated with written tasks. However, there is limited evidence related to psychometric properties of OSCEs in psychology training programs. This is in part due to the fact that there is little consistency in the development and implementation of OSCEs in psychology training programs. 

This presentation outlines the current evidence related to OSCE use within psychology training programs; and provides an evaluation of the psychometric properties reported for published OSCEs based on quality assurance guidelines. Based on the literature, the utility of the OSCE for various clinical skills will be discussed. In addition, the results of the first known study to develop and implement an OSCE for a professional psychology program in Australia in line with quality assurance guidelines and psychometrically evaluate inter-rater reliability and assessment across various clinical domains will be presented. 

These findings will highlight the current literature on OSCE use in psychology programs, in terms of both quantity and quality, and will make recommendations about implementing quality assurance processes for the development and evaluation of OSCEs in psychology training programs and beyond. 

2. Why is the topic important for research and / or for practice? 
Evidence for the use of OSCEs in professional psychology training programs is limited. Further to this, the process of developing OSCEs for use as an assessment tool appears to vary widely in quality. To date, there is no consistent approach to the development of OSCEs in professional psychology programs, limiting the scope of research in evaluating the utility of OSCEs in this field. The evaluation of an OSCE developed according to quality assurance guidelines demonstrates that OSCEs may be a reliable and valid tool for the assessment of various psychological competencies. The results of inter-rater data support the need for psychometric evaluation and consideration of quality assessment in the application of OSCEs in psychology training programs, and demonstrate that OSCEs can be utilised as a reliable tool for the assessment of various psychological competencies at varying skill levels. Implications for educators and supervisors will be discussed. 

3. Symposium format, including participant engagement methods
This presentation will be facilitated with the use of multi-media and interactive activities. 

4. Take-home messages / symposium outcomes / implications for further research and / or practice
There is a dearth of research on psychometric evaluation and quality in psychology. The value in assessing the psychometric qualities of OSCEs and utilising quality assurance guidelines routinelywithinthemethodologyandimplementationwillbepresented. Applicationsforother healthcare training programs will be discussed. It is hoped that this presentation will motivate psychology programs to standardise development, implementation, and evaluation of OSCEs. 

References (maximum three) 

TBA