Aim of the STP Final Year Assessment
The aim of the Scientist Training Programme (STP) Final Year Assessment is to ensure that trainees are able to practise safely, uphold professional standards and are ready to register with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) as a Clinical Scientist.
The STP curriculum is designed to prepare trainees for practice as a threshold registered Clinical Scientist. The work-based element of the curriculum is delivered in the workplace, with completion evidenced in the e-portfolio. The academic element of the curriculum is provided by a Higher Education institution (HEI), evidenced by completion of the MSc programme.
By the final year of the programme, trainees should be able to integrate and apply the knowledge, skills and behaviours which they have acquired and developed in each of these elements of the programme. In the STP Final Year Assessment trainees will demonstrate this by describing how they would manage typical scenarios that may be faced by threshold-level, newly registered Clinical Scientists.
Format of the assessment
Trainees will be presented with a number of scenarios which will sample the curriculum and focus on situations that may be faced by newly registered Clinical Scientists in day-to-day practice. Trainees should be prepared to respond to scenarios on any area of practice in their curriculum.
For each scenario, trainees will be asked to read a brief overview of the scenario to allow them to prepare. Trainees will then move into a station, where an assessor will ask questions about the scenario and the trainee will provide their responses. Trainees will continue to move between pre-reading and stations for the remainder of the assessment. The assessment concludes when a trainee has completed a circuit of pre-reading and stations. The total assessment time will be between 1 hour 30 minutes and 2 hours.
The assessment will be delivered online, using a purpose-built online platform. To complete the assessment, trainees will be invited to an online assessment circuit hosted in the platform. Once the assessment begins, trainees move through a timed circuit of pre-reading and stations. The pre-reading is presented within the platform before the trainee moves into the station and for each station, trainees will be placed in a ‘video room’ with their assessor. Multiple trainees will complete the same circuit of stations at the same time, each starting at a different point in the circuit and moving sequentially between stations.
The format of the assessment has been designed to minimise barriers and make the assessment accessible for the majority of trainees. Reasonable adjustments can be made to the assessment to accommodate trainees who have additional needs. More information can be found in the Assessment Regulations.
Assessment outcomes
In each station, an assessor will mark the trainee’s response to the scenario. Assessors will used a pre-defined mark scheme for each station to ensure assessment is as objective as possible. The marks for each station will be combined to define an overall outcome for the assessment. Trainees may not need to pass every station to achieve the minimum threshold required to be successful in the assessment.
Trainees will receive a pass or fail outcome for the STP Final Year Assessment. Trainees will be notified of their assessment outcome by email.
Trainees who receive a fail outcome in the assessment will have an opportunity to re-sit, according to the terms outlined in the Assessment Regulations.