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WPBA: Mini Consultation Evaluation Exercise (MiniCEX)

Publication date: 19 January 2024

A MiniCEX is an observed, real-life, interaction between you and a patient. The MiniCEX assesses your clinical skills, attitudes and behaviours. The MiniCEX is completed in the non-primary care setting.

It is your responsibility to identify and approach an appropriate clinician to be an assessor. You are advised to arrange a time and date for the assessment in advance. It is recognised that on occasion, real time opportunities present themselves that are suitable for MiniCEXs. However, this should not be seen as the norm. The assessments need to be spread out across the duration of the post rather than just at the end and the assessment should not last more than fifteen minutes.

Each MiniCEX should represent a different clinical problem. It is helpful to vary the types of cases that are assessed using MiniCEXs so that your competence is reviewed with different challenges.

MiniCEXs can be carried out in hospital by your Clinical Supervisor (which is best practice), by doctors who are ST4 or above, or Speciality and Associate Specialist (SAS) doctors with equivalent experience and who have met the GMC assessor requirements. You choose who undertakes your MiniCEX. You are encouraged to complete assessments with a range of assessors. Your named Clinical Supervisor should complete at least one MiniCEX during each rotation.

Your assessor will give you immediate specific constructive feedback on this interaction, focussing on your: 

  • Professionalism
  • Communication and consultation skills
  • Clinical assessment and judgement 
  • Clinical management
  • Organisation/efficiency

The assessor will also rate your performance and document their verbal feedback on the assessment form. This feedback will subsequently be used as evidence of your progress within the Educational Supervisor Review (ESR). 

Some assessors will have full access to your Portfolio but in non-primary care settings you may need to send them a ticket code to enable the assessment form to be completed.
In this situation, having ideally agreed a mutually appropriate time to complete an assessment, it is preferable to send the ticket code in advance to the assessor.

To use the ticketed feedback system you need to click on ‘generate a new ticket’ within the Portfolio after which the ‘generate a new ticket’ page will appear. You select the ‘MiniCEX assessment form’ and complete your assessor’s details. An email will then be sent providing a login code for the assessor to use to complete the ticketed MiniCEX assessment form.

Download the form

Mini Consultation Evaluation Exercise (MiniCEX) FAQs

It allows you to get feedback on your performance from an experienced clinician about a real patient, in real time.

The MiniCEX /CbD are best overseen by your clinical supervisor. This helps the clinical supervisor gain an understanding of you in terms of your clinical ability and the level of supervision required. This is valuable to help you gain the most from the rotation, but it also enables your clinical supervisor to have first-hand experience when completing their clinical supervisor report.

This would be discouraged. Different cases at different times should be used. The focus and set up of each assessment is different and should not be transferred.

The trainee should be graded in relation to those at the same stage of training. When grading the trainee, there is the option to put ‘Not applicable’ which means that the trainee did not cover the identified area as it was not within the context of the case. This is different to ‘Significantly below expectation and/or below expectation’, which means that either the trainee did not cover the identified area to a competent level or it was not demonstrated at all, and should have been.

4 MiniCEXs/ COTs are required in both ST1 and ST2. Half of the annual number have to be done before each six-month review.

Over the GP training programme, it is expected that you will submit a breadth of WPBAs relating to all the clinical experience groups.

No, however it contextualises the subsequent grades. You would be expected to complete the breadth of complexities and bear in mind low complexity consultations will be unlikely to give adequate opportunity to demonstrate your ability.

Yes. The MiniCEX has been mapped to the RCGP capability statements and these are detailed below.

  1. Consultation and communication skills. Capability: Communication and consultation skills, practising holistically
  2. Clinical assessment & judgement. Capabilities: Data Gathering and interpretation, CEPS, Making a diagnosis / decisions
  3. Clinical management. Capability: Clinical management
  4. Organisation/Efficiency. Capabilities: Working with colleagues and in teams, Organisation, Management and Leadership
  5. Professionalism. Capabilities: Ethics, Fitness to practice

Capabilities not included:

  • Community orientation
  • Maintaining performance, learning and teaching
  • Managing medical complexity

Yes. The Educational Supervisor makes a recommendation to the ARCP panel based on all work place based assessment and the content of the Portfolio.

No. The Educational Supervisor makes a recommendation to the ARCP panel based on all of the work place based assessment and content of the Portfolio. Progress varies from trainee to trainee. You will need to demonstrate competence by the point of CCT.

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