Student Perception of an OMM Virtual Practical Examination: In the Setting of Social Distancing

Osteopathic manipulative medicine (OMM) practical examinations (PEs) are important for assessing osteopathic medical students’ cognitive knowledge and psychomotor skills required for osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT). In the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, first-year medical students at Des Moines University (DMU) were no longer allowed to participate in a standard in-person PE (sPE) in December 2020. A novel virtual PE (vPE) over Zoom was developed to assess the students’ understanding of OMM learned in lab to replace the sPE. To determine if the vPE was perceived by the students as a successful and efficacious alternative to the sPE. After the graduating class of 2024 completed their vPE, an administrative email from the DMU OMM department was sent to gather anonymous, voluntary student feedback evaluating their perception and experience of the vPE. The survey consisted of 5 Likert scale questions that asked students to determine the extent they agree to 5 distinct statements and the survey contained a free-text response question asking for suggestions to improve the vPE experience. A Chi-square test of goodness-of-fit was used to assess for equal distributions of responses. Simultaneous 95% confidence intervals (CI) for multinomial proportions were created. The free text was qualitatively analyzed based on themes. Of the 224 first-year osteopathic students, 207 students responded to the Likert scale questions and 113 responded to the free text. Students strongly agree or somewhat agree that the vPE was a fair assessment of their knowledge of OMM lab material (90.82%) and optimally assessed their procedural OMM skills (86.96%). Students strongly agree that the vPE better assessed their OMM lab knowledge than a written multiple-choice examination (73.91%) and they received helpful feedback during the vPE (77.78%). Survey results support that the vPE was perceived by students to be an effective and fair alternative to the sPE. The creative use of a pair of pants and a prop sacrum was validated, as students confirmed that the vPE optimally assessed their procedural skills given the practical’s limitations.