Non-urgent advice: What is the RCA
In light of the Covid-19 pandemic, the previous CSA exam for MRCGP has been replaced by RCA (Recorded Consultation Assessment).
The RCA is a summative assessment of a doctor’s ability to integrate and apply clinical, professional, communication and practical skills appropriate for general practice. It uses pre-recorded video or audio consultations to provides evidence from a range of encounters in general practice relevant to most parts of the curriculum and also provides an opportunity to target particular aspects of clinical care and expertise.
Non-urgent advice: Structure of the RCA
The RCA will provide an objective assessment of clinical skills from real life settings provided across 13 consultations and undertaken by the candidate from their own current working environment. Due to the response to the pandemic situation it is likely that the majority of these will be conducted remotely.
The RCA will be sat during the ST3 year or beyond of training and recordings will be made during this time.
They may be any combination of audio, video or face to face consultations.
Cases will be submitted to a central facility – the FourteenFish RCA Platform.
Cases submitted should be of an appropriate level of challenge for an ST3 trainee to demonstrate safe and independent practice.
These cases will be assessed by trained and calibrated examiners who are experienced GPs.
Each consultation will be viewed independently by at least one examiner who will make a global judgement of that consultation, attributing marks in three domains and blind to other marks the candidate receives for that or any other consultation.
It is the responsibility of the candidate to obtain consent from the patient under the usual guidance for training and GDPR. This may be on the FourteenFish RCA Platform directly where this is used to record the consultation, in written form kept by the practice (paper/electronic) or verbally (on camera, the timing of which will not be counted as part of the ten minutes to be assessed or off camera, but a record kept).
Recordings submitted for the RCA will be deleted from the central IT platform after the Examination Board has ratified and published results. Material uploaded to the central IT platform but not submitted for the RCA will be deleted after 26 weeks (182 days). In exceptional cases, the Examination Board may approve retention for a longer period, the duration of which will be governed by GDPR principles.
Recordings of individual consultations must be continuous.
The camera should not be turned off during consultations and recordings must NOT be edited in anyway.
Non-urgent advice: Top Tips
– RCGP information re RCA can be accessed here.
– Get a revision group together- minimum 4 people, start at least 6 months before the exam. Your AKT groups can evolve into RCA groups.
– Have a consultation plan
– Videoing – do lots, watch with trainer.
– Practising cases with your trainer
– Courses: most RCA courses are pretty good, we run regular RCA training within HDR sessions for ST3s
– Be yourself and try to relax a little. Tell yourself “This is going to go well”. The consultation will flow better.
Non-urgent advice: RCA Resources
Telephone and Video
Telephone and Video Consultation skills by Dr Matt Smith
Useful resources for CSA and RCA on Pennine website
RCGP Remote consultation and triage advice
NB Hot Topics Telephone and Video Consultation
Primary Care Knowledge Boost Podcast on telephone consultations
E-learning for Health modules on telephone and video consultations
Examinations
Pennine Collection of YouTube videos demonstrating examinations
Clinical resources for remote consulting
Paediatrics
Clinical pathways for remote assessment
Webinar on remote paediatric consulting
Mental Health
An introduction to mental health consulting via video
Common problems
General communication skills resources
Bradford VTS database of communication skills resources
Our own Pennine GP Training website and videos
Resources for Digital Primary Care
Look no further than eGP Learning ‘Digital Primary Care