A collaboration on teaching and assessing triadic consultation skills

INTRODUCTION: Teaching triadic consultation skills is becoming increasingly prevalent at medical schools but is included by few schools in summative assessments. We describe a collaboration between Leicester and Cambridge Medical Schools to share teaching practice and the development of an objective structure clinical examination (OSCE) station to assess these important skills. METHODS: We agreed on the broad components of the process skills of a triadic consultation and wrote a framework. We used the framework to develop OSCE criteria and suitable case scenarios. The triadic consultation OSCEs were used in our summative assessments at Leicester and Cambridge. RESULTS: Student feedback on teaching was largely positive. The OSCEs at both institutions performed effectively provided a fair and reliable test and had good face validity. Student performance was similar in both schools. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Our collaboration provided peer support and enabled the production of a framework for teaching and assessing triadic consultations that is likely to be generalisable to other medical schools. We were able to reach a consensus on what skills should be included in the teaching of triadic consultations and to co-design an OSCE station to effectively assess those skills. INNOVATION: Collaboration between two medical schools using a constructive alignment principle allowed the efficient development of effective teaching and assessment of triadic consultations.