2013/14

 The Joint Project Board has published the arrangements for the joint teaching of the PCMD cohort of students.  This aims to safeguard the students’ experience and outline the governance structure during the transition period to the two new medical schools.  The GMC has visited the two new medical schools as part of an accreditation programme. The visits were also to ensure that the delivery of joint teaching of the PCMD cohort will not be affected by the disaggregation.

 The first phase of the curriculum review has been completed and the priorities for developing the curriculum have been approved.  For the academic year 2013/14 this includes the introduction of the induction week for Year 5 and having an introduction session for all Years 3 & 4 clinical placements across all localities.  The changes are an evolution of the current curriculum aimed at enhancing the student experience and do not involve any major structural change.

 There has been a recent plenary and workshop review. You will be made aware of any changes that will be introduced.

 The GMC has published an implementation plan for approval of trainers.  Clinical teachers in the medical school who have senior roles have been contacted through an electronic questionnaire to obtain the required data.  Clinical teachers in all localities will be contacted over the next few months regarding this.

 The GMC sent this survey to all 32 UK Medical Schools.  For 2012/13 this was sent to all students at the end of their Student Assistantship.  For PCMD this survey was sent at end of the 4th block in Year 5, with a good response rate.

 There have been a number of changes that were introduced to the Progress Test in the previous academic year. These include; ◦ Year 5 students: Students who pass the first two tests of the year will not have to sit further Progress tests ◦ Years 2-4: The boundaries for the various grades have changed. Clinical teachers and students are advised to refer to the technical manual for further details.

 These are of a different quality to other judgements and will now carry more weight than a normal Judgement.  A “maybe” and “no” will lead to 2 nd level remediation by the Associate Dean or representative and will carry the same consequences as an “unsatisfactory” judgement in the module.  If a student is given a “maybe” or a “no” in two of the five blocks this will result in failure of the module and may prevent the successful completion of the year.

 In order to capture this information each student will now be allocated an extra Professionalism Judgement based on this feedback and awarded by an expert Panel of the Associate Deans and the Lead for Professionalism.  If no On-the-Spot feedback has been awarded a student will automatically be awarded a “satisfactory” but in the light of the On-the-Spot feedback the Panel may award “excellent”, “borderline” or “unsatisfactory”. The same rules of progression will apply to the module.  In the previous academic year, these have been used formatively. There are plans to use these summatively in the academic year 2013/14.

 There should be an emphasis on communication skills – this is particularly important as it is their first opportunity for meaningful clinical contact with patients.

Clinical Pathways  There is a requirement to have an introduction session for each week.  The medical school has received very good feedback from students on weeks that have an introduction session (suggested plan on next slide).  Clinical Teachers are encouraged to give students increasing responsibility e.g. present on Ward Rounds, see patients in parallel surgeries & present back in Years 3 & 4, present in educational meetings.

Suggested Introduction Session Plan Content - Plan for the week/changes to timetable - Learning opportunities in the department - Assessments in the week - Contact details of clinical teacher lead

In Vivo Clinical Competencies  All clinical teachers should have completed in vivo benchmarking by the end of the academic year 2013/2014.  This is now available online through the staff development website.  Assessments carried out by clinical teachers who have not completed the benchmarking after the academic year 2013/2014 will be void.

Quality of Feedback  High quality and timely feedback is crucial for student development. This is particularly important for Professionalism Judgements & SSU Assessments.

Pharmacology and Therapeutics  Extra pharmacology tutorials and clinical skills sessions have been introduced to prepare for national prescription competency.  It is envisaged that all PMS students will have to sit the national prescription competency although it will not be a requirement for graduation.  All students and clinical teachers will receive an update once this is agreed nationally.

 It is important that clinical teacher leads have a learning agreement with Year 5 students at the beginning of each block.  Year 5 students should only by signed off for the ‘Blue book’ clinical competencies if they have been observed by the assessor performing them to a satisfactory level.  Foundation Year 1 doctors may not assess Year 5 students competencies.  Details of the Year 5 induction week will be published by all localities.

Students applying to the Foundation Programme in 2013/14 will be selected using the Situational Judgement Test (SJT) and Education Performance Measure (EPM) replacing the previous system of ‘white space’ questions and academic quartiles. This application process is now in its third year.

The SJT is a machine marked test with two question formats: o Rank five possible responses in order o Select the three most appropriate responses A maximum of 50 points are available.

 All applicants to the Foundation Programme, including to the Academic Foundation Programmes, will be expected to take the SJT in the UK.  Year 5 PCMD students will sit this on: Friday 6th December 2013, 14:00  The SJT is taken in exam conditions  Consists of 70 questions in 2 hours 20 minutes

 Exemplar questions of the SJT are available on the foundation programme website;  The medical school will provide a plenary and a series of workshops for the SJT for Year 5 students at the beginning of the academic year. The dates for these will be advised by Localities.

 The EPM has replaced academic quartiles as a measure of clinical and non-clinical skills, knowledge and performance up to the point of application.  The score is comprised of three elements; o Medical school performance in deciles; for which points are available; o Additional degrees, which are worth up to 5 points; o Academic achievements, for which up to 2 points are available

 The decile points reflect medical school performance in relation to final year cohort.  If students reapply the following year, their original decile points score will carry forward (i.e. any subsequent assessments will not be taken into account), however the points for additional degrees, publications, presentations and prizes will be awarded at the time of application.

 Students who have been assessed by one of the University Disability centres as requiring special provision may apply for reasonable adjustments to the format of the SJT.  A request form for reasonable adjustments must be submitted to the SJT Lead by Wednesday 2 October Reasonable Adjustments Reasonable Adjustments

 Any applicant unable to undertake the SJT within the national testing window will be withdrawn from the FP 2013/14 application process.

Further information is available at: