NMC OSCE preparation: all 10 stations
The OSCE is the second half of the Test of Competence, sat in the UK once you have passed the CBT. It is 10 stations in three groups, and you may attempt it up to 3 times within one application.
4
APIE
Four stations linked by one scenario, taken in order: assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation. You meet the same patient throughout, so what you find in the assessment is what you plan and act on.
4
Clinical skills
Four practical skills, set as two pairs of two. These are performed on manikins and equipment rather than discussed.
2
Values, behaviours and evidence-based practice
Two stations on professional values and behaviours and on evidence-based practice.
What an attempt looks like
You type, the patient answers, and when you hand in you get a report against the station criteria showing what you met and what you did not.
An example attempt. Your station and your report will differ.
You
Hello, my name is Amara and I am one of the nurses looking after you this morning. Could you confirm your full name and date of birth for me?
Patient
Morning. Joan Whitfield, fourteenth of March 1952.
You
Thank you Joan. Before I start, do you have any allergies I should know about?
Patient
Penicillin. It brings me out in a rash all down my arms.
You
That is useful, thank you. I would like to take a full set of observations and record them on your chart. Is that all right?
Patient
Yes, go ahead. I have been feeling a bit short of breath since last night.
Examiner
Her respiration rate is 24, oxygen saturation 93% on air, blood pressure 112/68, pulse 102, temperature 37.9, and she is alert.
Simulated verdict: not passed
Every essential criterion has to be met. One was not.
Essential criterion not met: escalates an abnormal NEWS2 score to a senior
Criteria
5 of 6 met- Introduces self and role
- Confirms patient identity before proceeding essential
- Asks about allergies essential
- Gains consent before assessment
- Records a full set of observations essential
- Escalates an abnormal NEWS2 score to a senior essential
Watch a full station, passed and failed Two recorded attempts, replayed with the marked report for each.
Guides
- The 10 NMC OSCE stations, explainedWhat each of the 10 stations in the NMC Test of Competence OSCE covers, from the linked APIE scenario to the paired skills stations.
- The APIE assessment stationWhat the first of the four linked APIE stations asks of you, how a structured assessment is built, and the mistakes that cost candidates marks.
- The APIE planning stationThe second of the four linked APIE stations: turning what you found in the assessment into a written, prioritised, measurable plan, and the mistakes that cost marks.
- The APIE implementation stationThe third of the four linked APIE stations: carrying out part of your own plan on the patient, safely and in the right order, while an examiner watches.
- The APIE evaluation stationThe last of the four linked APIE stations: judging whether your own care worked, against the goals you set, and saying what you would change.
- The professional values stationOne of the two written NMC OSCE stations: a situation where the right action is a professional judgement rather than a clinical skill, and how it is assessed.
- The evidence-based practice stationThe other written NMC OSCE station: saying what should happen for a patient, what that decision rests on, and where the evidence for it comes from.
- The OSCE clinical skills stationsThe NMC names 23 skills that may be tested, and asks you to say your actions and reasons out loud on a manikin. What is published, and what is not.
- NMC OSCE marking criteria and resultsWhat the NMC publishes about OSCE marking: a pass mark per station, generally 60 to 90 per cent, every station to be passed, and the grids it keeps private.
- OSCE resits, attempts and feesWhat an NMC OSCE resit costs, how long you wait between sittings, and what happens after a third attempt. Reduced resit fee £397, full fee £794.
- NEWS2 and observations in the OSCEHow the National Early Warning Score 2 chart works, what its 7 parameters are, and why charting observations without acting on them costs marks.
- How to prepare for the NMC OSCEA practical approach to preparing for the NMC Test of Competence OSCE, including what online practice can and cannot do for you.
Practise an assessment station
You hold the conversation by typing, a simulated patient answers, and you get a marked report afterwards showing which criteria you met and where you lost them.
The patient you speak to is never shown the marking criteria, so it cannot lead you to them: you have to elicit what matters yourself, which is the thing a station is testing. The scenario follows the assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation structure the exam is built on. In our marking a red flag fails the station on its own rather than being averaged away, and the verdict is worked out from the individual judgements by a fixed rule rather than written by the model that marked them.
Simulator attempts come with every access plan, 4 of them with the 99 days plan, which is a full APIE sitting, and in larger packs on their own.
Stations are added and rewritten as the exam guidance changes, and every attempt runs against the current version, so a revision reaches your next station rather than a later edition of something you bought.
Our simulator covers assessment-style stations from the 10: you hold the conversation with a simulated patient by typing, and are marked against criteria we wrote ourselves. The four clinical skills stations are performed on manikins and equipment and are not simulated here. The result is a simulated verdict, not a prediction of how an NMC assessor would mark you.
Exam facts on these pages come from the NMC's published OSCE guidance, including the £794 fee and the attempt limits. Pass marks come from the NMC's Test Specification and pass rates from its quarterly statistics, and we state none of our own. NMCMATE is an independent preparation service and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to the Nursing and Midwifery Council.