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Quality Assuring Postgraduate Medical Education
Information for Trainees
The last few years have seen marked change in medical education
with the introduction of foundation years and more structured
Specialist Registrar Training.
The Postgraduate Medical Educational and Training Board (PMETB) has
outlined the next steps which involve clearer standards and a more
comprehensive assessment of educational posts and placements for all
doctors in training.
The following headings link to an outline of Quality Assurance of
Postgraduate Medical Education for Severn Deanery.
Quality assurance aims
A Quality
assurance triangle in Severn Deanery
Trainee questionnaires
Trainee confidentiality
Trainee email addresses
Questionnaire completion
Trainee responses
Questionnaire feedback
Trainee feedback
Educator opinion and the Trust Postgraduate Medical Education Report
Educator opinion and the annual Deanery review
Grading of posts
PMETB
PMETB visits
Deanery review
Contacts
Questions answered
Quality Assurance aims
The aim of quality assurance is to provide good patient care by
encouraging high standards of supervision, support and education for
all doctors in training. Consistent, comparable, anonymised,
information on the standard of training will be provided to encourage
local review and developments in training.
A Quality
assurance triangle in Severn Deanery
Information on training will come from three main sources: the
trainee, the educators and external assessment (see diagram).
Trainee opinion from local feedback and questionnaires. Educator
opinion within a Trust Postgraduate Medical Education Report
External assessment visits by PMETB or the Deanery as well as local
evaluation of training. Trainee questionnaires
Each year, all trainees nationally, will be expected to complete
the national PMETB questionnaire between the 1st June and 1st July. A
basic example is linked
here and
the PMETB website
gives more information. Within Severn Deanery, this year, the
questionnaire will be applied to Foundation year 1 and 2, Senior House
Officer, Specialist Registrar and General Practice Registrar doctors
in training. Trainees in Severn Deanery will also be completing a
brief version of the PMETB questionnaire, at the end of each
placement, at other times in the year. This will provide a much more
comprehensive picture of education in the Deanery as several opinions
on one placement or post gives a more accurate representation than one
alone. Trainee
confidentiality
Trainees within Severn Deanery are provided with a confidential,
personalised web portal to complete the PMETB questionnaire. This web
portal is at
http://www.surveys.sevwesdeanery.nhs.uk/ Passwords will be e
mailed to individual trainees. These can then be changed to one that
only the trainee will know. This personal web portal will accessible
only to the individual trainee for the duration of their training in
Severn Deanery and it allows trainees to revisit and amend their
questionnaire. Data from the PMETB questionnaire will only be
handled anonymously and then only by a named data handler who is
independent of any specialty, Trust or any process involved in a
trainee’s education. Trainee
email addresses
Trainees should ensure they have passed their current, regularly
used e mail address to the Deanery using the address
contact@sevwesdeanery.nhs.uk This will only be used for
information relating to the trainee’s own education. It will not be
released to any person outside the deanery. It is expected that in
future all documents relating to your training will be passed to
trainee’s by e mail including certification of completion of training
and RITA assessment. Trainees are therefore advised to keep the
Deanery advised of any e mail address changes.
Questionnaire completion
Trainees are able to print a certificate to confirm completion of
the questionnaire by logging on to
http://www.surveys.sevwesdeanery.nhs.uk/. Please retain this in
your learning portfolio. If you have problems accessing the website,
please email
contact@sevwesdeanery.nhs.uk It is hoped that every trainee will
complete the PMETB questionnaire. Your response as a trainee will help
improve the post for the next person. The response of other trainees
will be improving your own next post. Doctor in training and those
providing training are all professionals and it is part of a
professional role to provide and receive feedback.
Trainee responses
Trainees will be able to print a certificate to confirm completion
of the questionnaire. Please retain this in your learning portfolio.
This certificate and any record of completion of the questionnaire is
entirely separate from the content of the questionnaire. Local
centre managers and deanery managers will contact trainees to remind
them to complete the questionnaire. They will have no access at all to
the content of the questionnaire and will only be contacting those
trainees who they are told have not responded.
Questionnaire feedback
Questionnaire responses are anonymous and handled as aggregated
data. Feedback on training will only be released if more than three
people have commented on the same post or placement. This is both a
Deanery and national policy. For this reason small specialties will
not receive local feedback, but will have feedback in the context of a
whole trust or for their speciality across the whole Deanery.
Trainee feedback
The best training posts are those that regularly collect feedback
from their own trainees, often informally, at the end of teaching,
induction or appraisal sessions. Brief feedback as a group and some
written evaluation should take place a regular intervals in a
placement. Ultimately the questionnaire is a screening tool and it
is local evaluation of training that is particularly relevant. PMETB
visits will be looking at processes for local feedback and evaluation
of training.
Educator opinion and the Trust Postgraduate Medical Education
Report
From October onwards each year Clinical Tutors and Directors of
Medical education will be completing reports on postgraduate medical
education in their Trust. An example is linked
here.
These map to the domains of education that will be inspected by PMETB
(see the PMETB
http://www.pmetb.org.uk/ for the domains). This report will be
based on shorter reports from educators in each department in the
Trust (example
link). The report will draw together all other information
existing within the Trust such as exam successes, facilities, risk
reports.
Educator opinion and the annual Deanery review
The Trust Postgraduate Medical Education Report will be reviewed by
the Deanery at the end of each financial year and form the basis of a
discussion with the Chief Executive of the Trust. This will form a
process of educational governance linking with the clinical governance
and risk management policies in each Trust. The report will provide
link to evidence for PMETB of the standard of training and will sit
alongside educational reports from other professional groups in the
Trust. Grading of posts
Each educational post or placement will receive an overall grading
related to the trainee questionnaire, the educator report and any
reports from external visits. This grading (link
here) will be linked only to the educational content of the post
and focus on induction, appraisal, trainee support and supervision.
Those posts in difficulty will be reviewed by the Deanery and are at
risk of triggered visits by PMETB. PMETB
The Postgraduate Medical Education and Training Board (PMETB) is an
independent statutory body that oversees postgraduate medical
education and training for all specialties, including general
practice, across the UK. PMETB took on its full statutory powers on
30 September 2005 and replaces the Specialist Training Authority of
the Medical Royal Colleges (STA) and the Joint Committee on
Postgraduate Training for General Practice (JCPTCP). More details of
PMETB’s work can be found on its website
http://www.pmetb.org.uk/. PMETB
visits
PMETB has reduced the number of visits nationally and these visits
have replaced a complex overlapping assessment process involving
several different organisation. PMETB intends to assess the quality
assurance process in each Deanery and will visit those Trusts
identified as in difficulty from the national questionnaire. Visits
will focus on educational programmes within a group of specialities
rather than a single Trust. PMETB visits will also be triggered
where Trusts or programmes are identified as falling below the
expected educational standard. Deanery
Review
The Deanery will review the education within each Trust and each
programme annually, usually towards the end of the financial year, and
in conjunction with the relevant Trust Chief Executive and speciality
leads. Trusts or programmes identified as being in difficulty will
be visited by the Deanery to help draw up a specific, focused plan of
action to resolve identified problems.
Contacts
| Mrs Linda Applin |
Quality Assurance
General Practice
Severn Deanery |
| Professor Selena Gray |
Associate Dean
Severn Deanery |
| Miss Dawn McKendry |
IM&T co-ordinator
Severn Deanery |
| Dr Mark Rickenbach |
Associate Dean Quality
Assurance
Severn Deanery |
| Mr Andy Shand |
Lead for Quality
Assurance
Severn Deanery |
Questions answered
How can I be certain my questionnaire will be handled in
confidence?
It is a policy of the Severn Deanery to handle any
information about your training in a confidential manner and this
particularly applies to any feedback you provide on your training.
Data is anonymised and only used in aggregated form by a data handler
who is is independent of any specialty, Trust or any process involved
in you own education. Access to your questionnaire is only by using
your e mail address and a unique randomly generated password which you
can choose to reset. Why is Severn Deanery using a different
web site to some other Deaneries?
The Deanery has been leading nationally on questionnaire feedback
from trainees and has the capacity to provide a personalised, password
protected, website portal to each individual trainee for the duration
of their training in Severn Deanery. This can be revisited and
updated by the individual trainee. Trainees will also be able to
complete questionnaire feedback at the end of each placement or post
and this will provide a more comprehensive and accurate picture of
training in each post than in other deaneries. Why is Severn
Deanery not using a paper version of the PMETB questionnaire?
All trainees should be able to use e mail and websites as part of
their day to day education and work. All future advice and
information on training will be via e mail. The use of e mail and a website saves resources within the NHS and is
more confidential than a paper version. Why should I, as a
trainee, bother to complete the questionnaire?
Your feedback will help develop your post either while you are in it
or more likely for the next person. The response from other trainees
will help improve your next post. It is part of the role of a
professional to provide feedback and in turn receive feedback.
What benefit is the questionnaire to me as a postgraduate centre
manager?
Over time you will get a consistent comparable picture of the standard
of education in your Trust compared to other Trusts and specialties.
This will supplement you own opinion and encourage improvement in
education so that your trainees are better supported and can provide
better patient care. However you will not get feedback on
specialties until more than three trainees have responded to the
questionnaire. What happens if I don’t complete the
questionnaire?
Ultimately it is an individual’s right not to complete the PMETB
questionnaire. The Deanery will not receive feedback on your current
post and will be required to remind you to complete the questionnaire
until the date of closure. You will be asked why you felt you could
not complete a questionnaire. Your satisfactory completion of
training certification will be reviewed. How long will it take
me?
Approximately 5 minutes. What if I am in a trust doctor posts
or other similar post?
Please compete the questionnaire if you hold a password. The
questionnaire is intended for doctors in training posts, but we would
welcome Trust doctor post feedback as well. What if I am on
maternity leave?
You are only expected to complete a questionnaire if you are in post
at the time. If you are doing a maternity locum and are given a
password then do complete the questionnaire. What if I am out of
area at present?
You would complete a questionnaire relating to the deanery you are
actually working in at present. What if I have transferred into a
Severn Deanery training post temporarily?
You should have e mailed the deanery with your e mail address and
receive a password. You should complete a questionnaire. This page was last updated
15/05/08
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