GPES and trainees are focused on 'patient-centred' consulting and determining the patient's agenda, which is what is required to pass the RCGP membership examination.
Some, but certainly not all, of the differences in ARCP performance may be explained by disproportionately high rates of membership examination failure, especially in psychiatry and general practice.
This debate paper aims to critically appraise the use of OSCEs as a method of assessment in the membership examination of the Royal College of Psychiatrists UK (MRCPsych), although the arguments are likely to apply to other postgraduate psychiatric examinations.
Predictive validity studies are required to determine to what extent the MMI and the SJT both singly and in combination predict both in-training program performance and professional college membership examination scores.
For example, to enter into higher specialist training in psychiatry (the last three years of postgraduate training leading to eligibility for employment at consultant level), one must have passed all three parts of the relevant membership examination.
But following the last question, it is a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy that if you invest in the education, and your endpoint is how they do in the membership examination, clearly they are going to do better.
