Yorkshire and Humber feedback on their 2nd mock OSFA event

On the 22nd June the Yorkshire and Humber Healthcare Science Trainee Network held our second mock OSFA event at the Library and Learning Centre in Leeds. The event was open to all second and third year STPs within the Yorkshire and Humber region in order to help prepare for the OSFAs at the end of year 3.

Following last year’s feedback, some changes were made to ensure the trainees and assessors gained as much as possible from the event. This year’s event commenced at 1pm and consisted of a talk from an OSFA assessor and station writer regarding what to expect at an OSFA, followed by a question and answer session. After this, the trainees were able to sit our mock practical OSFA session. The practical session was organised to be as similar to the real OSFAs as possible, with all scenarios being reviewed by a trained OSFA assessor beforehand and each station assessment lasting 12 minutes. Each station was manned by an assessor that was provided with a scenario and marking scheme and every trainee was able to perform two stations and observe two stations. Following completion of each station the trainee received assessor feedback allowing for trainees to ask any questions they may have prior to moving to the next station.

In total 12 trainees attended the event with an equal number of second and third year STPs. Every trainee was asked to complete a feedback form following the running of the event and it was great to see such a positive response. Every trainee would recommend this event to a trainee clinical scientist and gave an average overall rating of 8.7/10. The main feedback points are summarised below.

What did you find most useful about the event?

• A great opportunity to practice general scientific skills
• It was organised
• Provided an insight into how to prepare for the OSFA
• Receiving feedback from the assessors after each station
• Inclusion of OSFA trained assessors
• Demystified the OSFA

What did you find the most least useful about the event?

• The patient history station wasn’t long enough.
• The audit/patient complaint stations were similar
• Biased towards certain specialisms in assessor feedback but can understand that this is generic stations and it is difficult to consider all specialisms equally

What could be improved?

• Provide some water for the event
• Better communication to trainees about the event
• Allowing everyone to sit all stations
• Making the stations more similar to the actual OSFA with data to analyse and interpret
• More stations
• Possibly go through each station at the end as a group and talk about other potential questions
• The event was organised well but having a larger team will help reduce the strain when organising
• If possible add specialism stations

Assessor feedback

• Assign assessors a scenario beforehand to prepare properly for the day
• More feedback time and questions from the attendees

Overall the feedback was good, and we can’t wait to improve the event for next year!