Assessing the curriculum Mary Martin Jenny Reath The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners

Assessing the RACGP Aboriginal Health Curriculum Curriculum Developed 1997 in partnership with the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO) Evaluation Implementation 2001 Candidates concerned curriculum not adequately assessed in the Fellowship of the RACGP (FRACGP) examination

FRACGP Examination Format Written 150 Applied Knowledge Questions (including single best answer and extended matching questions) 26 Key Feature Problems Clinical 14 Clinical Stations – combination of 2 long cases and 12 short cases or OSCEs

Aboriginal Health Assessment Written questions developed and included in examinations from early 2000s Performing well RACGP convened workshop to develop further examination questions and recommend processes

FRACGP Examination Aboriginal Health Workshop Aboriginal involvement at all stages : Organisational representatives and key individuals Development/ Review of questions and processes Regular annual meetings planned

First Clinical Case in 2006 Different model required from volunteer GP examiner model Recruitment and training of Aboriginal actors/ health workers to role play patients Consistency over 9 different examination sites

Feedback following Clinical Examination 2006 RACGP Faculties embraced process and respected needs of Aboriginal actors Aboriginal actors/ health workers valued the opportunity to participate in assessment ? Candidates performed better in cultural sensitivity than in clinical areas Some examiners requested further training in this area

Recommendations from recent workshop Minimum number of Aboriginal health questions in every examination (written and clinical) Aboriginal actors to be trained to assess performance of candidates Aboriginal examiners are adequately remunerated Training of other examiners in Aboriginal health

Our Learning Assessment is vital part of implementing the curriculum Aboriginal people are enthusiastic and skilled partners in this process Opportunity for learning for examiners as well as candidates Value of ongoing cycle involving Aboriginal people in evaluation and improvement of existing processes

Assessing the curriculum Thank you Mary Martin Jenny Reath The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners