miniPAT is CLOSED
online miniPAT
What is miniPAT
miniPAT stands for mini Peer Assessment Tool. It has various other names including 360 appraisal.
It's purpose to help the trainee gain insight into their progress and performance against the GMC domains of "Good Medical Practice". To be maximally useful it depends on:
- Assessments from a minimum of eight (12 should be nominated) colleagues who represent seniors and peers, including medical, nursing and Allied Health Professionals. In NYECFS the process requires the educational supervisor to be one of the raters
- A self assessment of the same domains by the trainee.
- A meeting (appraisal) between the trainee and the educational supervisor to discuss the results of Peer and self assessment and the differences between the two.
When is miniPAT done
In F1 it is done during month three of the FIRST post (October)
such a round appears as yyyy11
In F2 it is done during month three of the SECOND post (February)
such a round appears as yyyy22
IF there is a requirement for it to be repeated it will be done during the second/third month of the THIRD post for F1 and F2 (May/June)
round for F1: yyyy13
round for F2: yyyy23
Using the NYEC e-miniPAT (information for trainees)
- Log on using your usual login and password. Select 'training' and then 'miniPAT'
- The choice of raters should be agreed with the educational supervisor and should follow the recommendations
- The trainee enters the email address for each rater in an online form.
- An automatic email is sent to each rater asking them to log on and complete a miniPAT form for the trainee. (If the email address is not on the NYEC system a miniPAT rater account will also be created.)
- Once the form has been completed, it will be indicated on the trainees rater assignment page and an automatic email will be sent to the trainee confirming the form has been completed. At no stage are individual raters
scores revealed to trainees
If a rater does not make a return, the trainee can deselect that rater and assign another. Once the time window for completion is over, the submitted scores and summary report will be returned to the trainee by the Educational Supervisor for discussion. The summary will be added to the trainee assessment records automatically.
- All changes logged within the miniPAT system will be confirmed by email to all relevant parties in line with the school data security policy.
Completing a self miniPAT (information for trainees)
- Log on using your usual user login
- Select the 'self miniPAT' option.
- Complete the form.
- Once submitted it will be locked AND CANNOT BE ALTERED.
- A 'tick' will appear at the bottom of the table of assessors to indicate it has been completed.
Using the NYEC e-miniPAT (information for raters)
- All raters including trainees and educational supervisors who are already registered as users, will need to login through the miniPAT login page - the link for this can be found in the tabs at the top of this page.
- The first time you log in, or at any time later if you forget your password, leave the password field blank, click submit and follow the instructions. More detailed help is available by clicking the 'password help' link from the log in page
- Once logged in, a drop down box listing all trainees who have requested a miniPAT will be shown.
- Once a miniPAT is completed, that record will be locked AND CANNOT BE ALTERED.
The trainees name will be highlighted in the drop down box and the trainee will see a 'tick' by that rater to indicate the same.
Viewing the summary (trainees)
- Once the miniPAT round is complete, a summary page will be available which will indicate the raters scores, the trainees self score, and the cohort score for the school.
- These results should form part of the final appraisal with the educational supervisor.
The results!
The results are first made available to the Educational Supervisor and the Programme Directors. Once an Educational Supervisor has reviewed the results, they will be 'unlocked' for the trainee to view. Some centres may do this electronically, while others do it by printing out the results. Once all the results are unlocked they will be added to the assessments summary automatically.
What is shown?
Five pieces of information are shown on the report:
- Raters scores
The number of raters, average scores, and the grouped averages are shown. Meaningful results can only be gained where there are more than eight raters AND . . . - Distribution of raters by seniority/profession
A good distribution makes interpretation more meaningful - there should be the Educational Supervisor, senior medical colleagues, peer colleagues, and other clinical professionals. - Self Score
The trainees' self assessment - Cohort score
The average for each domain and each group of domains is shown from all the assessments submitted by colleagues (this does NOT include self assessment scores). - Comments
Trainee comments are shown first, followed by raters comments in RANDOM order!
How to interpret the results
The results should be interpreted summatively (how well am I doing), formatively (where are they areas I need to improve), AND comparatively (how well do I perceive I am doing when compared to my assessors view of me, and how am I doing compared to the school as a whole)
Whilst the standard for completion of each year is a score of 4, it is well recognised that even at this stage a proportion of trainees will be exceeding this, and the national mean is nearer to 5 than 4.
The raters scores
- Individual domains
Score of 4 or more are fine. Occasional scores below 4 should be used to determine areas for development, rather than as an intrinsic sign of failure. - Domain groups
A more rounded way of considering questions from similar domains. They can be interpreted as in 1 above.
Summative - scores alone
Formative - scores in context of comments
My scores v raters scores
- Self scores less than raters scores (domain or domain groups)
Most trainees will score below their raters. This is usual, and is often simply a reflection of lack of confidence on the part of the trainee - Self scores above raters scores
Your educational supervisor will explain this to you, but it is often a sign of confidence being ahead of competence.
Summative - compare scores
Formative - scores in context of comments. Compare your own comments with those of your raters
Raters scores v school cohort
- These are the most reflective of overall capability. It provides some idea of how an individual trainee can be compared to the school as a whole. However, it does not necessarily mean that those below the average for the school are not meeting the expected standard.
- miniPAT is a well recognised and reliable measure of overal performance. We live in a competitive world, and whilst the scores are not currently used in the application process, those who are much below the school average may face significant challenges to reach the standards for recruitment to training posts beyond the Foundation Programme.
