Further to the paper ‘Workplace assessment for licensing in general practice’1 we write to update you of current developments in the development of a workplace assessment for the new licensing examination.
The RCGP and the Committee of General Practice Education Directors are working collaboratively through a workplace assessment steering group on a number of pilot projects in 2005–2006 in preparation for a new assessment package to go live in 2007. It is proposed that the new workplace assessment will comprise a trainer's report triangulated with some externally assessed work-based tests. A new competency-based trainer's report is in design based around a set of holistically determined competencies derived from the emergent RCGP Curriculum. Evidence for this report will be garnered from the workplace as outlined in the above ‘principles’ paper. In addition, a number of reliability and validity studies are being performed to develop tools for the external triangulation of workplace findings.
Workplace assessment is only one of three assessments in development, the other two being a Clinical Skills Assessment module and an applied knowledge test. The RCGP, assisted by a designated Assessment Fellow, is ensuring that all three of the proposed modules for the new examination interrelate appropriately and draw down directly fro the new Curriculum. All those involved are committed to developing a new assessment programmes that is robust and fit for purpose while remaining mindful of the assessment burden on future generations of trainees.
- © British Journal of General Practice, 2005.