This article was migrated. The article was not marked as recommended. Background: Despite the need to provide weight management counseling to patients who are overweight or obese, resident physicians receive little relevant education and practice in performing this skill. As a result, residents report low levels of self-efficacy and often demonstrate limited performance competency. Structured educational interventions providing opportunities for residents to practice weight loss counseling along with objective assessment are lacking. Methods: This article describes the development and implementation of an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) for the assessment of resident physician weight loss counseling. A total of 30 PGY-2 and 3 internal medicine residents participated. The OSCE included a brief (10-15 minute) educational session on the 5As counseling framework, followed by an 18-minute encounter with a standardized patient (SP) who was overweight or obese. Resident performance in the OSCE was measured by use of a skills checklist composed of 23 pre-specified counseling skills. Each skill represents a specific element of communication used in effective weight loss counseling, and is based on the 5As counseling framework. The checklist was completed by the SP immediately following the encounter, and the percentage of skills performed was calculated. Results: Residents performed a mean of 68.6% of the pre-specified counseling skills (SD = 17.2%). No significant differences in OSCE performance based on gender, PGY year, SP rater, or career plan (specialty vs. primary care) emerged. Conclusion: The authors developed and implemented an OSCE for the assessment of resident weight loss counseling. The skills checklist allowed for the identification of individual and overall counseling skills in need of improvement, and allowed for targeted feedback.
