KEY POINT ONE: responsibility

 

It is the responsiblity of the trainee to ensure that they complete the appropriate assessments and build up a record of their training and evidence of competence AT THE APPROPRIATE TIMES through the e-portfolio. It will be you who tells your trainer/supervisor when you are ready to do a specific type of assessment (not the other way around).

 

KEY POINT TWO: 'needs further development'

Please do not see 'needs further development' as a failure. We expect you to have quite a few 'needs further development' especially if you are in ST1 or ST2. If you had all "competent" or "excellent" in ST1 or ST2, we'd be worried - how can you have no learning needs at such an early stage in your training.

 

KEY POINT THREE: Hospital Consultants

Some of your hospital colleagues may not be that familiar with what they are doing in the assessments. Whilst they are being trained up, we would urge you to get a good understanding of how the assessments work and what each domain or competency means so that you are empowered to help your consultant. In this way, we are sure that your hospital colleagues will get the hang of them in no time and really help you to get the best out of them. So, please help them.

 

 

WBPA - an overview

 

Remember, you decide when these assessments take place (usually when you feel you are ready), but don't overlook the minimum number you have to do in each post (click nMRCGP training map on the left)

 

 

 

WPBA: compulsory components (click on a box)

 

 

 

 

 

Tell Me More....

 

* WPBA will look at relationships with colleagues, continuity of care, patient centredness/empowerment/satisfaction .

 

* the WPBA tools are designed to capture evidence of performance in a structured and formative (developmental) way. It is important to note that there is no pass/fail standards in any of these workplace based assessments. The tools simply serve to harvest information and provide the supervisor with material for feedback and identification of learning needs.

 

* Therefore, not reaching the required standard in one element of WPBA does not necessarily lead to failure of WPBA. Because there is an overlap in some of the competencies being tested by the different components of WPBA, poor performance in one component will result in looking for the those competencies in the other components to see if you made up for it there; they look at the overall picture.

 

 

 

Can You Give Me Some Guidance?

 

* You should expect that many assessments will be delivered during protected (tutorial) time

* You need to bear in mind which assessments need to be completed in each post and organise them

* You decide when these assessments take place

* Pace yourself; your trainer will not appreciate it if you try and fit all the assessments into the last week of your post

* Give your trainer notice (“Can we do a CBD next week?”)

* Preparation is either necessary or strongly advised

* Case selection is very important, as different cases will allow demonstration of different competences, and you need to cover all of them to complete WPBA

* There is a prescribed time for each assessment, which is followed by feedback and completion of the forms in your ePortfolio

 

Click on a section in the sub-menu above to find some specific guidance on each of these components

 

 

 

What standards should be used?

 

In the early stages of training it is unlikely that the GPStR will be able to provide evidence of readiness to practise. The structured evidence, considered against the competence framework will highlight the areas where the GPStR is doing well and those areas where more learning and support is needed. Thus each of the reviews will lead to a learning plan designed to enable the GPStR to collect more evidence of competence and to build up a richer picture of readiness for practice.

 

The standard against which the GPStR is judged is always the level of competence expected of a doctor who is certified to practise independently as a general practitioner. This standard is used throughout the three years of training. This means that in the first two years of training the GPStR is being judged against the standard they should have reached at the end of training. Inevitably there will be less evidence from the application of the WPBA tools in the first two years of training, and more developmental needs will be identified. This is what the assessment system is designed to do, so that further training experiences can be directed toward the developmental needs of GPStRs.

 

The GPStR must show competence in all twelve competence areas by the end of year 3.

 

 

 

How much evidence of each competence does a GPStR need in order to complete the WPBA?

 

Assessment of competences is about making a qualitative judgement not a quantitative one. We would expect that at the end of ST3 the GPStR will have several sets of evidence in each competence area, collected from a range of settings and through different tools. However, the only requirement is that there is enough evidence to enable the trainer to feel confident that the GPStR is competent to practise. Each portfolio will look slightly different, but it should provide a rich picture of competence built up over three years. The “ticks” in the ePortfolio are simply a way of keeping a shared, transparent and systematic record of evidence.