Aim of the STP assessment strategy
Trainees are assessed throughout the programme to ensure that on successful completion, they are able to practise safely, uphold professional standards and are ready to register with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) as Clinical Scientists.
The STP curriculum is designed to meet this aim, integrating 2 elements:
- the work-based curriculum
- the academic curriculum
The work-based element of the curriculum is delivered in the workplace and assessed through work-based assessments. Successful completion of the work-based assessments is evidenced in the e-portfolio. The academic element of the curriculum is delivered by the university as an MSc programme. Trainees complete multiple assessments designed by the university during the MSc and successful completion of the MSc programme is required to complete the STP.
The third part of the STP assessment strategy is a final, synoptic exam, currently the STP Final Year Assessment. The work-based assessment portfolio, the MSc programme and the STP Final Year Assessment must all be successfully achieved to enable successful completion of the STP.
Each part of the assessment strategy for the STP performs a different function, with each addressing a different element of the core principles of assessment of validity, reliability, fairness and practicality.
STP assessment strategy
Work-based
- Focus – skills and behaviours for practice
- Environment – internal
- Content – comprehensive
- Authenticity/validity – high
- Variability – high
- Objectivity – low
Academic
- Focus – academic knowledge
- Environment – external
- Content – sampled
- Authenticity – low/unknown
- Variability – low
- Objectivity – high
Final year assessment
- Focus – application of knowledge and experience
- Environment – external
- Content – sampled
- Authenticity/validity – low
- Variability – low
- Objectivity – high
Work-based assessments
To demonstrate the development of skills and behaviours required and the application of knowledge in practice, the work-based curriculum sets out assessments that trainees must complete in the workplace. The work-based assessments are completed ‘on the job’ in the trainee’s own workplace and therefore have high validity as an authentic and realistic test of the trainee’s ability to practise.
The types of assessments used and how they should be conducted are defined by the NSHCS work-based assessment standards. These standards need to be followed for all work-based assessments.
Trainees collate evidence of completion of these assessments in an e-portfolio. These work-based assessments are very different to the academic assessments trainees may have completed at university prior to the starting the STP. The focus here is on learning to do the job. The evidence trainees submit should be generated by the trainees doing the on-the-job tasks required by the assessment.
Academic learning and assessment
Trainees complete multiple assessments designed by the university during the course of the MSc. The university is responsible for these assessments and sets and delivers the assessments according to their own assessment standards. The primary focus of the MSc is to provide the academic knowledge and research skills to underpin professional clinical scientific practice. These assessments can be a less authentic test of the trainee’s ability to practise but more reliable and objective, with less variability of experience between trainees at the same university.
Final year assessment
The aim of the assessment is to ensure trainees can apply their knowledge and experience of practice to safely navigate potentially novel but not uncommon situations. The assessment is delivered by the school in a standardised environment with multiple trainees’ sitting the assessment at the same time. As a result, the assessment can lack the authenticity of the practice environment. However, this results in reduced variability and increased objectivity.
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