54A

The day at work started in a meeting of the consultants who are supervising registrars with the Director of Training for the whole Auckland region. It turned into a vigorous discussion about the nature of the new training requirements. It seems that the College in its infinite wisdom thinks that rating trainees performance on a regular basis during each stage of the training measure against the expected standard at the END of the stage. As I put it at one stage, essentially we are being asked to tell our registrars (trainees) that they have failed each assessment. The local coordinator of training said that it is meant to be formative. When challenged that they were also being rated on a pass fail basis he agreed and illogically (in my view) said that it is possible to do both in the same assessment. Council is very careful to avoid pass fail assessments of our doctors whose performance is of concern, using the assessments for identifying educational needs. If you try to do both, you do neither properly, said I (with support). I fear nothing will change.

On the walk fromthe unit to this meeting I spotted this and was taken with it.