| BGS
Newsletter Online |
| Changing PACES (PACES clinical skills assessment) |
| Email your comments Attainment of the MRCP(UK) diploma – which includes the PACES clinical skills assessment – remains a mandatory part of physician training in the UK and is vital to career progression in many other parts of the world. PACES was introduced in 2001 and has proved a successful and deliverable examination, with over 30,000 candidates taking the examination since that time. Changes to UK curricula in Medicine, the advent of new standards for postgraduate assessments in the UK, and feedback from examiners, patients and candidates have led to review of the examination. As a result, important changes will be introduced in October 2009. The main aims of the changes are to further standardise candidate experience, enhance the assessment of communication, and develop the standard setting methodology, but still maintain basic format and deliverability. In October, the content and structure of one of the five Stations, Station Five, will change. The four five-minute encounters – which currently have mandatory system content of locomotor, dermatology, ophthalmology and endocrinology - will be replaced by two ten minute encounters. The emphasis will now be on the demonstration of integrated history taking, physical examination, communication and problem solving skills, rather than on “spot diagnosis” and knowledge assessment. System content is not now limited to the four specialities currently represented – offering the opportunity for content relating to under-represented specialties such as haematology, acute medicine, and elderly medicine to be incorporated. Secondly, the methods of marking candidates and determining the pass standard have been revised. The principle behind these revisions relates to the need to ensure that a passing candidate has attained the required standard in all of the clinical skills assessed, rather than being able to compensate for poor performance in one skill, for example communication, with better performance in another, for example physical examination. Seven core clinical skills, based on the current PACES Anchor Statement Skills and Good Medical Practice, have been defined, and examiners will assess candidates on each of these skills using a three point marking scale of Satisfactory, Borderline and Unsatisfactory. The pass mark will initially be based on the total test score, but a final pass standard, based on performance in each skill, will be introduced in late 2010. If you are an examiner, or supervise or teach trainees about to sit PACES, please familiarise yourself with the changes on the MRCP(UK) website. DVDs for examiners and candidates will be released in the summer. Andrew Elder BGS Newsletter, May 2009 |