Trainees will be presented with 7 scenarios which will sample the curriculum and focus on situations that may be faced by newly-registered Clinical Scientists in day-to-day practice. 5 of these scenarios will focus on specialist practice, while 2 scenarios will focus on the core modules which provide the skills, knowledge and behaviours required by all Clinical Scientists. Trainees should be prepared to respond to scenarios on any area of practice in their curriculum.
For each scenario, trainees will have 3 minutes to read the brief scenario and the questions posed about the scenario to allow them to prepare a response. Trainees will then move into a station, where they will have 9 minutes to provide their responses to the questions. 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. Completing a full circuit will take 1 hour 30 minutes.
The assessment will be delivered online, using a purpose-built platform. Trainees will be asked to log on to the platform before the circuit begins, making the total time to complete the assessment around 2 hours. 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 as inclusive as possible for 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.