Simulated Surgery in the Summative Assessment of General Practice Training: Results of a Trial in the Trent and Yorkshire Regions

Background: General practice registrars are now required to undertake a summative assessment of their consulting skills. Simulated surgeries have been developed as an alternative to the existing method of assessing video-recorded consultations.

Aim: To evaluate the simulated surgery assessment method, developed in the General Practice Postgraduate Education Department in Leicester, for use in assessing general practice consultation skills.

Method: General practice registrars in Leicester performed two eight-patient simulated surgeries separated by four weeks. Assessment outcomes were compared to demonstrate the consistency of the method. Pilot surgeries in Yorkshire were videotaped, and then rated by video-raters trained for summative assessment.

Results: The method consistently identified those registrars who were competent and those who were not yet competent in consulting skills. It proved acceptable to candidate doctors and has fewer resource requirements for both examiners and candidates than other consulting skills assessment methods.

Conclusion: The method developed in Leicester and successfully transferred to Yorkshire is feasible on a large scale, and offers an acceptable alternative to other consulting skills assessment methods. In this study it consistently identified competent from incompetent candidate doctors.