OSCE stations

Station types you will meet

• History taking. You gather information from a patient or parent who plays the historian. Used in PLAB 2 and the AMC Clinical exam.
• Examination. You examine a body system on a person or a model, and may be asked to say your findings aloud.
• Focused assessment. A nurse checks a deteriorating patient with an A to E approach and observations.
• Medicines. You check a prescription chart and give a medicine, with spoken checks and an explanation.
• Procedures and skills. Practical tasks such as injections, wound care or oxygen therapy.
• Handover and escalation. A spoken SBAR or ISBAR to a colleague.
• Communication. Explaining, counselling, breaking bad news or handling a concerned relative.
• Written stations. Care plans, evidence questions or professional values scenarios.

How exams combine them

The NMC nurse OSCE links four stations on one patient, covering assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation, then adds skills stations and two written ones. PLAB 2 uses mostly patient-facing stations plus some practical skills. The PEBC pharmacist exam splits stations into interactive and non-interactive. The mix is different for each exam, so see the exam pages from what is OSCE.

Where to practise them

Our stations library lists every station by exam and type. Each one has a task, a patient to talk to and estimated feedback after you finish. For scenario-style practice, see OSCE scenarios. For a quick structure to hold in your head, see the OSCE checklist.

Our stations are original. We do not reproduce real stations or recalled questions.

Common questions

What are OSCE stations?

They are the individual timed tasks in an OSCE. You complete one task at each station, then move to the next.

What are some OSCE stations examples?

Examples of types are history taking, examination, giving a medicine, a focused assessment, a handover call, a communication task and a written care plan.

How many stations are in an OSCE?

It depends on the exam. For example, the NMC nurse OSCE has 10, PLAB 2 has 16, RCSI has 14 and PEBC has 11 scored stations.