Diversifying the curriculum for OSCE assessments

UK clinical outcomes for ethnic minority individuals are less positive than for Caucasians. Health education programmes should therefore include teaching on cultural awareness and ethnic minority health provision to improve outcomes for these individuals. This study sought to ascertain whether KU Pharmacy (MPharm) students, an ethnically diverse cohort, felt ethnicity played a role in their learning experience in Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) assessments. Here paid ‟actors” mimic various disease states which students have to discuss treatments for. Black students were the most likely to feel less comfortable dealing with white actors. Other students had less confidence when dealing with black actors. Three-quarters of students said they had had no cultural awareness training and 67% said provision of more ethnically-diverse actors would improve their future clinical practice. To improve OSCEs, for future patient outcomes and student training purposes, cultural awareness training should be included earlier in the MPharm programme.