gpregistrar.co.uk

Summative assessment

Summative assessment is the term given to the process by which GP registrars are certified as competent to practice as general practitioners, and is organised by NOSA. In order to start practice as a GP or GP locum in the UK, a doctor has to pass summative assessment.

In education the experts refer to formative assessment and summative assessment:

Formative assessment is the assessment that goes on while an individual is learning, which helps to inform and shape the educational process.
Summative assessment is the assessment at the end of a period of education or training, which sums up how you have performed. It forms an end point.

What makes up the general practice Summative Assessment process?

Summative assessment acts, in general practice, as a pass or fail overall test of minimal competence. Although it is summative assessment, it is completed in modules or component parts:

Experience in a range of hospital jobs. If you come from another part of the world, or your posts are not approved or you have different sort of experience, then it may be considered as alternative experience by the Joint Committee for Professional Training in General Practice (JCPTGP).
One year, or sometimes longer as a registrar in a recognised training practice.
Successful completion of an audit.
Successful completion of a Multiple Choice (MCQ) examination.
A video tape of consultations to a satisfactory standard.
Successful completion of the structured trainer's report.
These can, and should, be done in stages, but the structured trainer's report can not be completed until the last month of training, and the last of the forms confirming completion of the various clinical posts will also have to wait till the end.

Warning

Some registrars have only discovered at the end of their registrar year that their hospital jobs are not going to be accepted by the JCPTGP as adequate experience for GP training. If this happens, you are faced with having to find further posts at short notice.

The new "enhanced management" of training in general practice may help to reduce this risk, but if there is any doubt about how much of your previous experience will count towards your training for general practice, you should confirm this in writing with the JCPTGP before you commence your registrar year. The JCPTGP are the body that make the final decision, so it is not wise to rely on opinions of colleagues, trainers, or even directors of postgraduate education in general practice.