nursing students’ performance and feedback on two clinical evaluation methods in operating room: a quasi-experimental study

Background: appropriate clinical evaluation methods correct educational errors, improve clinical training, and better judge students’ skills. objectives: the present study aimed to evaluate the effects of using objective structured clinical examination (osce) and mini-clinical evaluation exercise (mini-cex) on operating room students’ performance and satisfaction. methods: one group was evaluated by the mini-cex method and the other by the osce method after random allocation. feedback was subsequently collected, and data were analyzed using descriptive and analytical statistics. results: no significant difference was observed between the 2 groups regarding main demographic variables. the percentage of satisfaction with the evaluation method was higher in the mini-cex group, but this difference was insignificant (p > 0.05). the highest satisfaction was obtained for “fairness” in the osce group and “skill promotion” in the mini-cex group. the least satisfaction in both groups was related to “stressfulness.” the mean of final performance scores was significantly higher in the mini-cex group (p < 0.05). conclusions: although both the osce and mini-cex evaluation methods achieved acceptable satisfaction, the mini-cex evaluation method improved the operating room students’ performance in the clinical field. therefore, this evaluation method is suggested to enhance the operating room students’ clinical skills.