The ending a student gets is teaching material
For teachers preparing future ultrasound doctors and endocrinologists for the OSCE counselling station: what each station checks, which ending reveals a point the student missed, and what the debrief cannot judge.
Since 10 November the Library's dialogue section holds three voice stations instead of one. Next to history-taking there are now Counselling (2023): thyroid ultrasound and Counselling (residency, 2026): an endocrinologist's appointment. Both are built on accreditation station passports and play the same patient as the history-taking station — Kamila, 30, with recorded lines and a 3D head. The student speaks or types, needs no account, and ends with the passport phrase «Наша консультация завершена»; then comes a debrief against the passport's checklist.
Before the ultrasound she brings five questions of her own
In the 2023 station the student is the ultrasound doctor. The therapist has sent Kamila because her thyroid hormone is above normal, and she has never had this exam. During the conversation she asks whether it hurts, whether it matters that she had breakfast, how long it takes because she has to get back to work, whether there is radiation as with an X-ray, and when the result will be ready and what to do with it. The checklist has 15 items.
The station has four endings. One ending sends her away pleased — «теперь всё понятно» — but with the wrong plan: she expects the ultrasound doctor to give a diagnosis, or decides she no longer needs the endocrinologist. The debrief quotes the student's line that led her there and says whether it was corrected.
At the endocrinologist the results are on the table
In the residency station the student is an endocrinologist. A button at the station opens the medical data from the case: the therapist's referral, blood tests (in the case data TSH 12.8 mIU/L, free T4 8.3 pmol/L, anti-TPO antibodies 386 IU/mL) and the thyroid ultrasound report. Kamila has read about supplements and «hormones for life» online. When a term goes unexplained she asks back — «а ТТГ — это что?».
Because the data are there, the 30-item checklist includes informing the patient of the results, naming the diagnosis and naming possible causes. If her worry about hormones is left unanswered, the ending is that she is not sure she will be treated at all and may try supplements first.
Three ways to use the stations in a class
Before an ultrasound practical, run the 2023 station in pairs and compare endings; whoever got «Поняла неверно» (understood it wrongly) repeats only the close of the consultation.
In the residency group, give out the test results to read beforehand, then ask each student to explain them to Kamila without a single unexplained term.
In the debrief seminar, go through the checklist items that were missed and have the group find, in the transcript, the line where the point could have been made.
Eye contact, recognition and the clinical text stay with the teacher
Eye contact, item 4 of the 2023 checklist, is not assessed by voice. Phrases are recognised by fixed patterns, not by a person; the microphone works on push-to-talk, and one line can last up to 55 seconds. An ending is not a pass or fail verdict. Both cases are in Russian only and are drafts awaiting review by a physician, including the figures in the medical data; each station says so on its card.