Intervention
MAY
The formative OSCE program consisted of four sessions that were administered once every two weeks between April 1 and May 31, 2021. This program followed the key objectives of preclinical medical education in France, which focuses on taking an extensive structured medical history, as well as on developing good communication skills.The 20 students from the intervention group were divided into four subgroups. For each, the OSCE sessions were organized as follows:- Two teachers, both medical doctors, managed an OSCE station for a simulation lasting approximately 7 min, during which one teacher simulated the patient and the other was the examiner.- Before each OSCE session, a short briefing was performed by one of the teachers detailing the objectives of the station.- Following the OSCE, individual and collective debriefing sessions were conducted to collect students’ feedback on positive points and difficulties.The subject of each formative OSCE is detailed in In both intervention and control groups, each student received the standard teaching program of semiology courses of the faculty, with a specific focus on medical history and had a daily 3-h observational traineeship in a hospital department for the last 12 weeks of the year.