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Designing, implementing and assessing a new formative OSCE for ENT higher surgical trainees: Our experience in the North West region

Currently, otolaryngology trainees have a sixor seven-year gap between formal summative assessments, which comprise of the Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons examinations (MRCS) during core training and the Fellowship of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons examinations (FRCS) at the end of higher surgical training. In between these examinations, trainees undergo formative workplacebased assessments (WPBA) and a summative Annual Review of Competency and Progression (ARCP); however, there are no other tests or formal assessments of knowledge and skills to ensure that they are developing and progressing at the required rate. In the North West region, it was considered that further formative assessments should be carried out in between the MRCS and FRCS to evaluate a trainees development as they progressed through their training years and provide an objective assessment, allow trainees and trainers to identify areas of strengths and weakness, encourage reading and a greater understanding of the syllabus, as a benchmark for trainees to compare themselves to their colleagues and as a potential gauge of FRCS readiness. When developing a new assessment, four main criteria must be considered: validity, reliability, objectivity and practicality or feasibility and this pilot study set out to address this. A formative OSCE was designed and set up for trainees in the North West region by the local training board. The OSCE was blueprinted and had standard setting carried out by local Consultants and comprised of 17 stations, both interactive and static, all of which were deemed to be FRCS standard by the local faculty. There were 13 higher surgical trainees who undertook and completed the examination, and this pilot OSCE was carried out.