Pharmacy education has undergone a radical change as it evolves towards becoming a more patient oriented profession. With a greater emphasis on problem based teaching and competency, the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE), supported by its reliability and validity became the gold standard for the evaluation of clinical skills of undergraduate students of medicine and pharmacy worldwide. Core competency evaluation has become a mandatory and critical norm for accountability of educational objectives as the traditional testing tools cannot evaluate clinical competence. Interpersonal and communication skills, professional judgment, skills of resolution etc., may be best assessed through a well- structured OSCE in comparison to oral examinations, multiple choice tests and other methods of assessment. Though OSCEs as an objective method of evaluation offer several advantages to both students and teachers, it also has disadvantages and pitfalls in implementation. This article reviews the OSCE as a trend in pharmacy education.

La educación en farmacia ha sufrido un cambio radical a medida que evoluciona hacia convertirse en una profesión más orientada hacia el paciente. Con un mayor énfasis en la enseñanza basada en problemas y competencias, el examen clínico estructurado y objetivo (OSCE), soportado por su fiabilidad y validez, se ha convertido en el patrón-oro para la evaluación de las habilidades clínicas de los estudiantes de grado de medicina y farmacia en todo el mundo. La evaluación de las competencias centrales se ha convertido en una norma obligatoria y crucial para la responsabilidad de los objetivos educativos, ya que los exámenes tradicionales no pueden evaluar la competencia clínica. Las habilidades interpersonales y de comunicación, el juicio profesional, las habilidades de resolución, etc. pueden evaluarse mejor mediante un OSCE bien estructurado en comparación con los exámenes orales, los exámenes de elección múltiple y otros métodos de evaluación. Aunque los OSCE son un método objetivo de evaluación que ofrece varias ventajas tanto a estudiantes como a profesores, también tiene inconvenientes y problemas de implantación. Este articulo revisa los OSCE como una tendencia en la educación de farmacia.

The antidiabetic activity of the aqueous root extract of Pseudarthria viscida (L.) Wight & Arn., Fabaceae, was investigated in normal and neonatal streptozotocin (n2-STZ)-induced non insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) rats and compared with glibenclamide as a reference standard. Two different doses (250 and 500 mg/kg) of the extract were administered to normal and experimental diabetic rats for 21 days. Fasting blood glucose levels, serum lipid profiles and changes in body weight were evaluated in normal and diabetic rats while serum insulin, glycated hemoglobin, urea, creatinine, magnesium, protein, albumin and glycogen, glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase (GOT), glutamate pyruvate transaminase (GPT), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) levels in kidney and liver were evaluated additionally in diabetic rats. Treatment with extract at both dose levels was found to exhibit antidiabetic activity, with the higher dose showing more significant activity.