Laura Stevenson
School of Medicine
The Mini-Peer Assessment Tool ( PAT ) is valuable in assessing professionalism in UK psychiatry trainees
There is an expectation that doctors demonstrate professionalism . There is , however , no agreed definition of what constitutes professionalism . The General Medical Council guidance “ Good Medical Practice ” attempts to standardise this and encompasses skills and attributes such as enhanced communication , a sound knowledge base and teamwork . As part of specialist psychiatry training in the United Kingdom , the Mini-Peer Assessment Tool ( mini-PAT ) is one of the work based placed assessments used to evidence professionalism . It utilises multisource feedback from a variety of health professionals and is undertaken on multiple occasions throughout training . It is not however , intended to be purely an assessment of professionalism , but rather of the trainee ’ s performance overall compared to others . The conceptual utility formula devised by Van der Vleuton and Schuwirth was used , along with current literature , to critically assess the mini-PAT . There is no such thing as a perfect assessment . On balance however , the mini-PAT demonstrates sufficient validity , reliability , acceptability , feasibility and educational impact to be a useful assessment of professionalism in psychiatry trainees . There is scope for improvement and development but taken in context , as a single component of the summative process of training progression , it is a valuable tool .
Postgraduate Conference 2020 Page 41