Key result
Physiotherapy students exhibited a large, maintained anticipatory autonomic stress response during a 12-scenario OSCE, with the highest sympathetic response occurring in clinical reasoning scenarios.
Why the study?
The study aimed to analyse modifications in the autonomic stress response of physiotherapy students undergoing a 12-scenario Objective Structured Clinical Evaluation.
Observational (n=86)
Randomized scenario order
No
Physiotherapy students exhibit a significant and sustained autonomic stress response during OSCEs, driven more by clinical reasoning complexity than emotional demands.
May warrant stress monitoring during clinical reasoning OSCEs; leaves open whether targeted interventions alter sympathetic responses in physiotherapy training.
The aim of the present research was to analyse modifications in the autonomic stress response of Physiotherapy students undergoing a 12-scenario Objective Structured Clinical Evaluation (OSCE). A total of 86 last year students of the Physiotherapy bachelor’s degree ( 27.29 years (SD = 6.66).; 36 females and 50 males) randomly assigned were monitored during the complete OSCE to measure heart rate variability (HRV) in temporal, frequency, and non-linear domains. The HRV analysed showed a large anticipatory stress response of students maintained during the entire evaluation. The stress response varied regarding OSCE station complexity and demands and the highest sympathetic response was not found in higher emotional scenarios. The autonomic modulation monitoring allows teachers to design OSCE scenarios more adapted to the students, limiting the effect of the stress response to allow a better performance.
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Martínez‐Pascual et al. (2022) conducted an observational in Physiotherapy students undergoing OSCE (n=86). 12-scenario Objective Structured Clinical Evaluation (OSCE) vs. Comparison between different OSCE scenarios was evaluated on Heart rate variability (HRmean, RMSSD, PNN50, SD1, SD2) across different OSCE scenarios (p=<0.001). Physiotherapy students exhibited a large, maintained anticipatory autonomic stress response during a 12-scenario OSCE, with the highest sympathetic response occurring in clinical reasoning scenarios.
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