What is MiniCEX?

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.

You choose who undertakes your MiniCEX; they 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 are encouraged to complete assessments with a range of assessors, and 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 the following areas:

• 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 an invitation to complete the assessment. In this situation, having ideally agreed a mutually appropriate time to complete an assessment, it is preferable to invite the assessor in advance.

To invite the assessor, you need to go to the COTs / Audio-COTs / MiniCEX area under "assessments", then click "Request MiniCEX". You will need to enter assessor's details and optionally you can include a personal message, a descriptive title and a brief description of the case. The invite will be sent by email once you select the "invite" button.