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PAPER O6/CE/43
Policy and Procedure for Tracking and Monitoring
Personal Professional Development Assessment
Proposal
Background
18th April 2006
o Tracking Assessment of Personal Professional Development (PPD)paper
presented to Coordinating Assessment Board (CAB)proposed system for
tracking and monitoring PPD issues (incorporated in current paper).
o CAB Board approved proposal to track and monitor PPD.
June 2006
o Working group set up to develop tracking system of PPD. Members included
Dr Helen Cameron, Lindsay Dalziel, Karen Simpson and Rachel Ellaway.
29 Nov 2006
th
o Duty of Care Paper presented to Curriculum Executive(CE) outlined the need
to store relevant PPD concerns in one location (incorporated in current paper).
31 January 2007
st
o Position paper on Tracking Assessment of PPD in the MBChB Programme.
o CE noted some progress had been made over the past year and suggested the
working group should be extended to include Prof Mike Ford, Prof K Boyd, Dr
F Kristmundsdottir, R Stewart and perhaps Prof A Calder although FtP will not
impinge.
Introduction
Since 1998, PPD has been a vertical theme within the MBChB curriculum. The aim of the
PPD theme is to enable medical students to adopt reflective and self-directed approaches to
the study and practice of medicine to maximise his/her effectiveness and personal satisfaction
throughout his/her professional life.
Medical students’ PPD has been monitored and assessed throughout the five year programme
through summative and formative assessment by:-
Peer assessments of group working in Problem Based Learning (PBL) in Yrs 1 & 2.
Peer assessments of group working in Student Selected Components (SSC) in Yrs 1 &
2.
Reports from GP tutors in Talking with Families and Health Needs of Older People in
Yr 1.
Reports from GP tutors in Introduction to Clinical Practice, Yr 2 on request of the
Course Organiser if concerns have been expressed.
Clinical tutor assessments of personal and professional skills and attributes in specific
attachments in Yrs 3 – 5.
Supervisor assessment of performance including personal professional skills and
attributes in SSC 4 (Yr 4).
Students submit Record of Generic Professional Skills (previously the Record of
Achievement) in Yrs 1 – 4.
University healthcare staff, colleagues, members of the public or patients registering
PPD concerns on the ‘PPD Comments’ form.
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The PPD criteria currently addressed in these assessments include student’s:-
Attendance in PBLs, clinical attachments and SSCs.
Reliability and personal organisation e.g. timeliness, time management, clear and
accurate documentation, passing on information appropriately.
Commitment and motivation e.g. participation and engagement in the programme
including group and ward work.
Interpersonal relationships with patients, relatives, peers, academic staff, colleagues
and other healthcare staff including group and team working.
Ethical awareness in healthcare e.g. consent, confidentiality, respect for patients’
autonomy and privacy.
Teaching and learning skills e.g. formal and informal oral and case presentations,
evidence of self directed learning and further reading, recognising limits of ability and
knowledge, seeking help appropriately, making use of learning opportunities.
Self care e.g. work-life balance, general appearance, hygiene, dress and conduct.
Current Guidance and Information Given to Medical Students (Years 1- 5)
Despite the lack of systems and clear processes to track PPD assessments there has been an
expectation (since 1998) by the Faculty/College Curriculum Committees that such
information is indeed accumulated and used to inform decisions and support students.
Therefore students have been informed through notices in the CSPPD and Year guides. The
current draft notice is shown below:
‘Throughout the 5 year MBChB programme your personal professional development
is monitored, assessed and tracked to ensure you are developing the necessary skills
and attitudes and to intervene with help at an early stage. It is important to realise that
the University will only award the degree of MBChB when graduating students are
considered fit to practise medicine and this is dependent on satisfactory personal
professional development as well as academic performance.
The personal professional development summative marks usually make a small
contribution to the overall assessment within a module however the formative
feedback is especially important for your on-going development. Some comments
may raise concerns about your professionalism and it is important you address these as
soon as possible. Accepting that assessment of personal professional development is a
matter of judgement, we gather feedback from as many tutors and colleagues as
possible and occasionally patients, other staff and peers may contribute. All this
information is tracked and monitored throughout the programme to give a more
accurate record of your professional attributes and interpersonal skills. This will allow
those with areas for development to be identified at an early stage.
If there are concerns about aspects of your personal professional development these
will be discussed with you and you will be offered help and advice from the Year
Director, your Director of Studies and/or the Professional Development Committee.
Occasionally, students have persistent or severe problems that could affect their ability
to demonstrate Good Medical Practice as described by the GMC. In such cases, they
will be referred by the Board of Examiners or the Year Director to the College Fitness
to Practise Committee.’
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Rationale to Track and Monitor PPD Assessment
Increasingly there is a need to establish a policy and procedure on tracking and monitoring
PPD assessments, concerns and issues electronically because:-
Students need to be able to view collectively any areas of PPD concerns recorded in
their PPD assessment so they can be proactive in addressing any area for development,
and to demonstrate to them a transparent and fair system of assessment and tracking.
Directors of Studies (DoS) need to be informed quickly and easily whenever there is a
concern raised within PPD assessment, so they can intervene at an early stage and
offer help and support as necessary.
Tutors may be reluctant to award ‘fail’ marks within PPD assessments but their
comments on concerns or issues are often very perceptive. Current practice is variable
on how these concerns are registered and followed-up. There is no standard method of
tracking repeated concerns about any one student.
A single concern does not give robust evidence of worrying behaviour, or even the
need for support from the Professional Development Committee (PDC) but repeated
independent observations could help identify students who need help and support from
their DoS or the PDC.
One serious impediment to tracking PPD assessments and concerns and passing on
relevant information in a confidential manner from module to module or year to year
has been the understanding that this is against University Regulations. However there
is no explicit regulation covering this issue. When the matter was raised at a SUGSC
working group set up to address assessment issues and the operation of Boards of
Examiners, it was acknowledged that tracking PPD assessments would be legitimate
and is an important matter of interest not only to the medical programme but also to
other programmes educating for entry to a profession such as education.
The Government has recently approved a change in the Medical Act at the request of
the General Medical Council (GMC) The new Section 60 was introduced to bring the
registration process in line with developments in regulation. It will provide a clearer
separation between graduation and registration and will require all applicants to satisfy
the GMC, at the point of registration, that they are fit to practise. This information is
obtained from the student on a self declaration form completed at the time of
application for provisional registration. There is currently debate about how the GMC
deal with this information once they have it, particularly when it relates to a fitness to
practise case which has been dealt with and closed down by the Medical school
concerned. Clearer guidance on this issue is expected by early July 2007.
Proposed System for Tracking and Monitoring PPD Assessment and Concerns:
All PPD assessments will continue to be reported and recorded on MBChB’s PPD
assessment forms. Information will include:-
Student’s name, matriculation number, year, module /attachment
List of PPD criteria assessed
Comments on any PPD concerns
Details of person submitting an ‘in-course’ PPD assessment or registering a
concern on a ‘PPD Comments’ form.
Record of those informed about the concern i.e. DoS (DoS should be routinely
informed by Year Coordinator), Year Director, Director of Student Affairs, Board
of Examiners etc.
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All PPD assessment forms that raise a concern (including any concerns on ‘PPD
Comments forms) will be scanned (scanner to be purchased) and stored in the K drive
or another secure electronic mode (in a password protected folder with limited access)
with all files prefixed with matriculation number to aid searching.
When a concern has been raised on a PPD assessment form, it will be entered in the
PPD comments field in the Assessment Engine under the broad PPD criterion, by the
Year Co-ordinator. It will be possible to search for PPD comments in the Assessment
Engine (to be further developed) to look for a pattern of concerns. The original data
explaining the concern will be stored in the K-drive (see above) until full GMC
registration is achieved.
Year Co-ordinators will:-
o Email individual sheets with a PPD concern to the Year Director and Director
of Studies and cc’d to Director of Student Affairs.
o Send an electronic copy of the PPD assessment form with concerns to the
student with a standard letter to advise student to contact and discuss with
Director of Studies in the first instance.
o Record the criteria of PPD concern on the electronic PPD tracking and
monitoring system on the Assessment Engine.
o Run a report on a rotational/semester basis to identify which students have had
PPD concerns and how many. A running total will be kept through the year
including a count across multiple years.
o For those students where a concern has been raised about their PPD, the
Assessment Engine will be searched for evidence of previous concerns in the
past. This data will be reviewed by the Year Director before taking to the
Board of Examiners.
The Year Director would decide whether single or accumulated concerns require
action by Year Director, Director of Studies, and Professional Development
Committee and/or reviewed by the Board of Examiners. The default is that the
Director of Students and Director of Student Affairs will always be informed through
the Assessment Engine (to be developed) and by the Year Coordinator.
o Year Director may:
Interview the student – this may follow an interview undertaken by the
Module Organiser or Director of Studies.
Refer to Professional Development Committee for pastoral support
Ask Board of Examiners to review/ discuss.
Director of Studies and Director of Student Affairs will be informed by Year
Coordinator that the student has been interviewed by Year Director.
o The role of the Director of Studies at this time is to provide pastoral support to
the student to overcome difficulties that are impacting on their performance
and behaviour.
Interventions will be logged on Assessment Engine in the PPD intervention box with
the details being held on the ‘K’ drive on the student’s PPD assessment. (This will be
recorded on paper until electronic PPD system is fully developed).
o Interventions recorded could include ‘Interviewed student’, ‘discussed with
Director of Studies’, Module Organiser, Year Director refer to Professional
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Development Committee or Fitness to Practice’ or ‘failed module’/‘resit
module’.
If student is seen by Professional Development Committee, a ‘file note’ is logged on
student’s file by the Assessment Officer for future reference.
o Professional Development Committee seeks consent from the student to keep
the Director of Studies and Year Director informed of help being offered and
progress.
o Professional Development Committee sends a letter with recommendations to
the student and with student’s consent, copies are sent to the Director of
Studies, Director of Student Affairs and Year Director.
If reviewed by the Board of Examiners, it would consider the evidence from PPD
assessments along with other academic results and make a judgement about the
outcome for the student and recommended actions. The following illustrate some
examples:
o Following the Year Director’s interview, the Board of Examiners may decide
that the problem warrants further interview. The Board of Examiners will
decide on the most appropriate staff member but it is likely to include the Year
Director and the Director of Student Affairs with the Director of Studies. A
report from that interview will be filed in the student’s file.
o Refer to the Professional Development Committee for additional or further
pastoral support.
Professional Development Committee ‘file note’ is logged in student’s
file by Assessment Officer for future reference.
o Award a fail to the student for the Module or the Year according to the rules of
assessment published to the students, and advise on requirements with respect
to further experience and resit assessments.
o Refer to the Fitness to Practise Committee when any one reported concern or
the accumulated reported concerns give rise to serious doubts about the
student’s fitness to practise.
If the Year Director decides to refer to either the Professional Development
Committee or the Board of examiners, the PPD assessment feedback form and the
Assessment Engine (to be developed) will be annotated accordingly for future
reference. It is likely that in cases of accumulated evidence, the Board of Examiners
would be informed.
This procedure will ensure that at the time of graduation, PPD concerns raised about an
individual student will have been worked through with the student and support agencies
where required.
Other PPD Concerns
Other PPD concerns or issues that Year Directors, Director of Student Affairs, Directors of
Studies and other specified staff currently monitor include:-
Academic performance: failed assessments (repeatedly), repeating years, allowed to
continue after appeals, or repeatedly late submissions of Portfolio items
Academic conduct: Plagiarism, dishonesty.
Support given or required.
Health: acute and chronic problems that may possibly affect performance and
assessment including alcohol or drug misuse.
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Advice and outcomes from Professional Development Committee referral.
Referral to Fitness to Practise Committee.
This constitutes further information about PPD but lies outwith regular summative PPD
assessment at present. Curriculum Executive may like to consider how they contribute to a
full assessment of PPD but currently it is not envisaged that they will be tracked electronically
though this could be developed in future.
Summary
In summary, the working group has consulted widely including relevant staff and two external
examiners for CSPPD. The new paper outlines current practice in the assessments of PPD
and describes how PPD might be monitored and tracked using an electronic system,
developed by Learning Technology Section, the Assessment Officer and the Medical
Teaching Organisation, while ensuring the details of concerns are kept securely by the
Assessment Officer. This combined approach will permit a transparent process with students
and allow Directors of Studies and Year Directors to track performance and request detailed
reports to intervene with appropriate support, or report to the Board of Examiners. Overall it
should provide a clearer PPD tracking and monitoring system within the MBChB programme.
The working group asks the Curriculum Executive to make any amendments or
recommendations and approve the policy and procedures detailed in this document.
If approval is granted the working group suggests a pilot be conducted with Year 3
throughout 2007-08 academic year.
Karen Simpson on behalf of the PPD Tracking and Monitoring Group, 27 June 2007
Members of the PPD Tracking and Monitoring Group
Prof K Boyd Dr H Cameron Prof M Ford K Simpson
Prof A Calder L Dalziel Dr F Kristmundsdottir R Stewart
(consulted) (consulted)
Key
AE Assessment Engine PBL Problem based Learning
BoE Board of Examiners PDC Professional Development Committee
CAB Coordinating Assessment Board PPD Personal Professional Development
CE Curriculum Executive SSC Student Select Component
DOS Director of Students YC Year Coordinator
DoSA Director of Student Affairs YD Year Director
GMC General Medical Council
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