Oxford Deanery School of Paediatrics

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Assessment

Background to Assessments during training

Formative Assessment
These assessments do not individually affect progression, but rather aim to help a trainee with learning objectives and to monitor progress in their training placement. For the run-through training programme, this is done by a system of “Workplace-Based Assessments” (WBA).

Summative Assessment
This is the type of assessment which determines progression in training. There are two types of Summative Assessment that you will come across; the MRCPCH examination and the ARCP (see below).

MRCPCH examination. The first part (parts 1 a and b) is generally taken after six months to one year of paediatric training, and must be passed before moving into ST3. The entire examination (Part 2 Written and Clinical) needs to be completed for the trainee to progress from ST3 to ST4.

Workplace-based assessments

Assessments must be completed online using the Assessment Services for Education and Training facility (ASSET), the exception being SAIL which is still paper based. Trainees can view their completed online assessments via the ePortfolio and results will be uploaded each week to their ePortfolio account. Trainers will be able to see the progress of their trainees from within the ePortfolio.

In order to log these assessments as you do them, it is necessary for all trainees to register with the College. The assessments will then be completed on the ASSET system. The College will register you with this system. Similarly all Assessors will need an account with ASSET

PLEASE NOTE THAT IT IS NOT ACCEPTABLE TO BUNCH ALL YOUR ASSESSMENTS AT THE END OF THE YEAR. All trainees will be expected to complete more than 1/2 their assessments during the first 7 months of the year (either September to March or March to September); those who fail to engage appropriately with the assessment process (including spreading them out through the year)risk being given an unsatisfactory outcome at ARCP. We expect that you will carry out 2-3 assessmments every couple of months throughout the training year, with ALL to be completed by late June or early January when the ARCPs are held.

The point of the assessments is that there is learning from one to the next, and progression can be demonstrated through the year. This is not possible if all the assessments are carried out in May and June.

Failure to engage in the assessment process will delay progression through training. Please contact the school if there are technical difficulties or poor support within your allocated training post.

There are 4 main types of assessments that you will be expected to complete at ST1-3:

Mini-CEX – (Mini Clinical Evaluation). This is a direct observation of a clinical encounter – it may be a history, examination or communication type encounter. These should be observed by a senior doctor or trained allied health profession and completed online via ASSET. At least half of these assessments must be completed by a Consultant

eCBD – (Cased Based Discussion). This should be a discussion about a case something you have been involved with and made an entry in the notes. This discussion looks at your clinical reasoning and note recording. It is not a discussion of other people’s management. The discussion should be completed online via ASSET. ALL of these assessments must be completed by a Consultant

DOPS – (Direct Observation of Practical Skills). DOPS forms should be completed on the ASSET system. This is a record of practical skills for example, blood taking, lumbar puncture and Intubation. The RCPCH has produced guidelines to which DOPS are mandatory and supplementary at each level of training. All the mandatory DOPS for the level of training, and a selection of the supplementary ones should be completed at each level.

ePaed MSF - (This is a Multi-source feedback tool). You will be expected to nominate at least 12 members from the team (consultants, seniors, peers, juniors, nurses and other health professional) to provide feedback via ASSET on your work performance. Please note that you must have a minimum of 7 completed assessments and a self-assessment for your ePaedMSF report to be valid - we advise that you invite over 12 assessors, to help increase your pool of responses.

More detailed instructions on how to complete assessments are available on the training section of the RCPCH website

The number of each type of assessment required by the RCPCH at each stage of Level 1 training are shown here.

For ST4-8 trainees, there are further WBAs to be completed.

SAIL is a letter-writing assessment. The College website contains all the details including the forms for completion, and instructions on how to perform SAIL. Five of these letters need to be assessed in each training year. This is not yet on the ASSET system, and so these need to be uploaded onto your e-portfolio into your Personal Library into a folder labelled SAIL.

A parent and carer feedback tool called the Carers of Children Feedback tool (CCF) is being developed by the College for level 3 trainees, and this will be piloted in this Deanery in April - June 2012.

Finally the START assessment will be beginning in NOvember 2012 (see separate section below).

For paper copies of the WBA forms to use in case your educational/clinical supervisor has not yet recieved your e-mail, or you wish to do an assessment on the spur of the moment, please see below. You will need to ask your supervisor to enter onto the AsSET system as soon as possible

MiniCEX, CBD, DOPS

All of this information and more can be found on the College website under Assessment Tools Guidance

START (Specialty Trainee Assessment for Readiness for Tenure)

START will become a mandatory part of the routine assessment for all trainees who enter level 3 (ST6) after 1st August 2011, and will take place for the first time in November 2012. The aim is to assess trainees at the standard expected of a new consultant in paediatrics. It will be a formative assessment, designed to point trainees to direct their learning towards particular competences during their final year. It will also detect those few trainees whose competence is of concern. Support will be given to trainees over their final year in order that they DO become competent in these aspects of work. It is likely that the results will be sent to College Tutors to feed back to trainees, and the results will form part of the discussion at the subsequent ARCP. It is NOT expected that trainees will have to sit this assessment more than once, but occasionally, an ARCP panel may recommend that it is repeated in order to demonstrate competence after a period of further training. More details, including detailed scenarios and the scoring system, can be found on the College website under ST7A.

ARCP (Annual Review of Competence Progression)

Every trainee, including LTFT trainees, will have an ANNUAL ARCP. For further details, it is recommended that all trainees and trainers read the relevant sections of the Gold Guide. This process is a review by a panel of the evidence of satisfactory progression of training, including regular completion of elements of the e-portfolio, completion of workplace-based assessments and mandatory training. The evidence is assessed by a panel of the School and Deanery including Lay and External representation to quality assure the process. As such the trainee is NOT expected to attend the panel unless an unsatisfactory outcome is expected, in which case the trainee must attend. However, from January 2012, trainees will also be able to attend if they have particular reasons for wanting a discussion with the panel, and a random 10% of trainees will be invited to attend for quality purposes.

Since the process is entirely electronic, all trainees need to be aware that ALL their evidence needs to be available on the e-portfolio. Please ensure that you know exactly what the expectations are by looking at the checklists for Level 1,Level 2 and Level 3 training. In order to progress at ARCP, you will need to have been keeping your e-portfolio up to date throughout the year. At previous ARCPs, the educational supervisors were asked to score the e-portfolio according to the schema shown here. This gives you some more idea of what we expect of your use of the e-portfolio.

ARCPs this year will take place on 25th and 26th June 2013. You will NOT be expected to attend these dates as all ARCPs will be carried out electronically. However there will be face-to-face interviews on 16th and 17th July where all trainees with unsatisfactory outcomes will be seen, as well as most ST2 and ST5 trainees. There will also be some spaces on that date for trainees who wish to be seen for other reasons, to book themselves in on a first come - first served basis. Further information will follow from Mairi Hills.

Trainees coming to the end of ST3, or those who are coming to the end of ST2 but who would like the opportunity of moving into an ST3 post on the middle-grade rota, are asked to take this document to their Clinical and Educational Supervisors to complete, to confirm that they are sufficiently competent and confident to take on the challenge of middle-grade working. This then needs to be uploaded to the Personal library of the e-portfolio.

Prior to the ARCP all trainees must arrange to meet their Clinical and the Educational supervisors for their annual appraisal discussion which will inform the completion of the Trainer's report on the e-portfolio. This discussion will take the place of the previous meetings with the ARCP panel for most trainees.

Final year ARCP and Grace Period

Trainees in their final year will, from 2013, be invited to a face-to-face ARCP in ST8, generally in March (ie 6 months before the expected CCT date). This will enable the CCT application process to begin so that trainees can obtain their CCT by the time they finish their training programme. A period of grace for 6 months will still be offered to all trainees following the end of the training programme (note that this is still 6 calendar months even if working part-time).

For SpRs

For those on the SpR Training Programme using the old curriculum - You will continue to use all of the old-style documentation which is still available on the College website. You are still expected to register with the College adn you need to do an eMSF once a year and so you will need to pay at least the reduced fee to the College for this facility. If you choose to do other assessments (in particular case-based discussions) and to use the e-portfolio, then the College asks that you pay the full fee of £70. To do these you will need to ensure that you are enrolled with the College and signed on to the AsSET system.

RITAs will continue annually for SpRs until completion of their training. LTFT trainees will also have RITAs annually. Please contact Mairi Hills if you have not heard about your RITA for this year