An OSCE runs on eight documents. Miss one and the gap shows on the day: an examiner who was never told the scale, an incident nobody wrote down, a student who cannot tell why the mark was what it was. This page lists all eight, says what each must contain, and points at the section of the guide that explains the thinking behind it.
All eight exist as spreadsheets you can download and edit today. Each one carries a worked example in every field, so the first draft is an edit rather than a blank page. Every school adapts them anyway, because the wording has to match your own regulations.
The eight documents
Document | What it must contain | Where the guide explains it |
|---|---|---|
Candidate brief, examiner brief, marking sheet, scoring scale, any critical item and its threshold, equipment list, time | ||
Opening line, history, affect, what to reveal only when asked, physical findings to simulate, safety limits | ||
Scale meaning, what counts as borderline, the critical rule, comment expectations, timing signals, what to do if a station overruns | ||
Four to six items for examiners and candidates on clarity, timing, equipment and fairness, collected before anyone leaves | ||
Fixed domains with a short scale and pre-written options, plus space for free text | ||
Circuit map, rotation times, bell or signal plan, staff by post, break schedule, contact numbers | ||
Time, station, candidate number, what happened, who decided what, and the remedy applied | ||
Result, the standard applied, station profile, what happens next, the appeal route and its deadline |
The station file has an interactive sibling
The station file is the one that feeds the platform, so it has a second route. The OSCE station template is the file to edit in a spreadsheet. The OSCE checklist builder walks the same structure step by step and runs quality checks on the result. Both export the same import layout, so the file your clinicians edit is the file the platform reads.
The builder's checks are structural. They cannot tell you whether the station measures the right clinical thing, which is why station review stays with your subject experts.
The three that fail most often
The examiner briefing. Most briefings explain the timing and skip the scale. The scale is the part examiners disagree about. Write what a borderline performance looks like on this station, in this year, in one sentence, and put it above the marking sheet rather than in a separate pack.
The feedback form. Free text alone produces inconsistent feedback and slow returns. The structured alternative that has been evaluated uses fixed domains with a three-point scale and pre-written options, built with examiners in a nominal group, and sent after the whole exam so that feedback cannot influence a later station. In the surgical OSCE where it was tested, 87.5 percent of students wanted it continued, and more than half still found it insufficiently concrete. Both halves matter when you design yours.
The incident log. A log written after the fact is worth little. The form needs to be on the desk, one line per event, filled in by the person who saw it. What it records is not the drama. It is the time, the station, the candidate number and the remedy, because that is what the board will read six weeks later.
What to change for your own program
Three things are local and must be edited every time. The scale, because a three-point scale and a five-point scale change what examiners can say. The critical item rule, because whether a critical failure fails the station or the exam is a regulation, not a template. And the appeal wording in the results letter must match the document your board actually approved.
Frequently asked questions
Can we use the station template for a nursing or pharmacy OSCE?
Yes. The structure is profession-neutral: sections, items, a scale, a critical item, and a global rating. What changes is the content of the items and who reviews them. See the OSCE across professions for what differs between fields.
How many items should a station marking sheet have?
Enough to cover the task and few enough to mark in real time. Most stations land between 10 and 20 observable items plus one global rating. Long sheets do not improve agreement between examiners, and they slow marking down. Designing the marking scheme covers the trade-off.
Do we need a separate examiner briefing for every station?
You need one general briefing and one station page. The general briefing covers the scale, the critical rule and the timing. The station page covers what this case is testing and what borderline looks like here. Examiners read the second one in the five minutes before the circuit starts.
Do we have to use your wording?
No, and three parts you should not. The scale, the critical-item rule and the appeal wording all have to match the document your board approved. The templates carry worked examples so you can see the shape, then overwrite them. Everything else is a starting point.
Who should own these documents?
The exam office owns the operational four: the run sheet, the incident log, the quality questionnaire and the results letter. The clinical lead owns the station file, the simulated-patient script and the examiner briefing. The feedback form needs both, because it is written by examiners and sent by the office.