Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39073068›Full record

ArticleJournal of evaluation in clinical practice2025

A many-facet Rasch measurement model approach to investigating objective structured clinical examination item parameter drift.

Karen Coetzee, Sandra Monteiro, Luxshi Amirthalingam

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Article in Journal of evaluation in clinical practice, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

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1citing papers in PubMed
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1 · What the graph read from it

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3 · Its place in the literature

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1 citing paper in PubMed.

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Karen CoetzeeAssessment Consultant and Psychometrician at Construct Measures, An Organization with a Focus on Assessment within Regulated Health Professions, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Sandra MonteiroDepartment of Medicine at McMaster, University in Hamilton, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.ORCID 0000-0001-8723-5942
Luxshi AmirthalingamResearch and Analysis department at Touchstone Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.ORCID 0000-0003-1097-1997

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

rationaleObjective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) are widely used for assessing clinical competence, especially in high-stakes environments such as medical licensure. However, the reuse of OSCE cases across multiple administrations raises concerns about parameter stability, known as item parameter drift (IPD). AIMS & 

objectivesThis study aims to investigate IPD in reused OSCE cases while accounting for examiner scoring effects using a Many-facet Rasch Measurement (MFRM) model.

methodData from 12 OSCE cases, reused over seven administrations of the Internationally Educated Nurse Competency Assessment Program (IENCAP), were analyzed using the MFRM model. Each case was treated as an item, and examiner scoring effects were accounted for in the analysis.

resultsThe results indicated that despite accounting for examiner effects, all cases exhibited some level of IPD, with an average absolute IPD of 0.21 logits. Three cases showed positive directional trends. IPD significantly affected score decisions in 1.19% of estimates, at an invariance violation of 0.58 logits.

conclusionThese findings suggest that while OSCE cases demonstrate sufficient stability for reuse, continuous monitoring is essential to ensure the accuracy of score interpretations and decisions. The study provides an objective threshold for detecting concerning levels of IPD and underscores the importance of addressing examiner scoring effects in OSCE assessments. The MFRM model offers a robust framework for tracking and mitigating IPD, contributing to the validity and reliability of OSCEs in evaluating clinical competence.

Indexed as

Clinical CompetenceEducational MeasurementHumansModels, StatisticalPsychometricsReproducibility of Resultsexaminer scoring effectsitem parameter driftmany‐faceted Rasch measurement modelOSCE

Identifiers

PMID39073068
PMCPMC11664641

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