Critically appraise your communication and consultation skills and provide in-depth and evidence based suggestions for how you will develop your practice at an advanced level and in a dynamic environment

Assessment Specification:  You will submit a 3,000 word essay in which you provide an evidence based and critical account of your in-class Observed Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) performance. 

Additional Information:  As part of this module, you are required to take part in an in-class single station OSCE.  The timing of the OSCE will take place on the date and at the time specified by the module leader.  Attendance at the OSCE is mandatory.  Please ensure that you arrive 30 minutes before your scheduled time. If you are more than 5 minutes late, entry will not be allowed.  Non-negotiated non-attendance will result in an automatic fail in your summative assessment. 

In the OSCE you will be presented with a patient specific scenario (relating to either the cardiovascular system, the respiratory system, the gastrointestinal system or urinary system).  You will be given five minutes to familiarise yourself with the scenario and take notes if necessary.  You will then be introduced to your patient and tested on the following skills:

• Communication and consultation (for example, your ability to develop a rapport with the patient and explore and respond to their agenda, health beliefs and preferences etc.).
• History taking (for example, your ability to take a history of the presenting problem, a medical and surgical history and family history etc.)
• Clinical examination and data interpretation (for example, your ability to undertake a systematic clinical examination and accurately interpret physical signs etc.)
• Diagnosis (for example, your ability to generate an adequate differential diagnosis based on the information available)

During the examination the examiner will provide you with the patient’s vital signs (blood pressure pulse, respirations, temperature, and oxygen saturation levels).  Clinical equipment will be provided; however, you can use your own stethoscope if you prefer.  The duration of your patient consultation will be 30 minutes. 

Depending on the availability of camera recording systems, your OSCE may be videoed.  If this facility is available, your videoed OSCE will be published on Moodle or City University London Media Space.  A service user representation may be asked to view a selection of the video recordings and provide anonymised feedback on the interpersonal skills observed.

Whilst participation in the OSCE is mandatory, your performance is not graded.  Instead, you will be given formative written feedback by the examiner.  This feedback will be released on Moodle within five working days.  The only occasion you will receive verbal feedback during/immediately following the OSCE is in the event that any unsafe practice is observed by the examiner. 

You will probably begin to reflect on your performance the moment the OSCE is over, if not before.  You are therefore encouraged to make some reflective notes as soon as possible.  However, do not come to any fixed conclusions about your performance until you have received your examiners feedback.  If a video recording of your OSCE has been made available, please consider adding to your reflective notes whilst watching your performance on film.

The summative assessment is a written assignment.  You are required to write a 3,000 word essay (excluding appendices and references) in which you provide an evidence based and critical account of your OSCE performance.  This should  include details of (1) why you did what you did (2) how you did what you did and (3) what aspects of your performance should be improved upon.  We recommend you draw on your examiner’s feedback and your reflective notes.   Please include your examiner’s feedback as an appendix. Critically appraise your communication and consultation skills and provide in-depth and evidence based suggestions for how you will develop your practice at an advanced level and in a dynamic environment

As this is a reflective piece of writing, use of the first person is acceptable.  However, don’t fall into the trap of writing a chatty account of what happened.  This is easy to do because you are writing a personal account and it is very easy to write about it informally.  Make sure you avoid this and keep your writing academic and formal.