Building rapport with patients in an OSCE
BMJ 2018; 360 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/sbmj.j4957 (Published 09 January 2018) Cite this as: BMJ 2018;360:j4957
- Duncan Harding, consultant in child and adolescent and forensic psychiatry
- South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK
Objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs) require you to assume the role of a junior doctor in a simulation of a clinical encounter in which you interact with a professional patient or an actor. OSCEs test your competency in performing procedural or examination skills and how you build rapport with patients.
A genuine connection
An OSCE is like a performance. You need to demonstrate a set of skills under test conditions. When you are a doctor, you will take on a role where you have to be objective, clinically astute, and psychologically robust, so that you can carry on with your day after seeing a patient. Patients’ interactions with you are not an act, so whatever the circumstances of a consultation you should approach them seriously and with integrity.
The key to success in an OSCE lies in recognising that although it is an artificial simulation, your interaction with the patient should be as it would in real life—that is, genuine.
A therapeutic interaction
A Student BMJ article published in 2017 suggested that students need to show empathy towards patients in OSCEs rather than using rehearsed statements.1 Of course, we need to be caring doctors, and our patients should feel that they have been heard, but empathising …
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