Royal Colleges of Physicians MRCP(UK) Management Board

MRCP(UK) Examiners: Teaching MRCP(UK) Examination candidates and publications for the MRCP(UK) Examination

The teaching of junior staff is an important part of an NHS consultant's multifarious activities. At SHO level this will not only entail instilling the skills, knowledge and attitudes required of a junior doctor to undertake their daily tasks but also, specifically, enabling them to pass the MRCP(UK) Examination. Consultants who are MRCP(UK) examiners will have an additional advantage in ensuring that their SHOs are familiar with the requirements of the current Examination. This, in turn, helps to dispel the accretion of misinformation and mythology that surrounds the Examination despite the many attempts, at seminars and teach-ins, to dispel this. However, it is important to define and agree the boundaries between what teaching is desirable and acceptable for an MRCP(UK) examiner to undertake and what is not acceptable.

Definitions

An examiner is defined as:

  • Anyone involved in question writing for the MRCP(UK) Examination (e.g. Specialty Question Groups);

  • Full and co-opted members of the MRCP(UK) Part 1 Examining Board, MRCP(UK) Part 2 Examining Board and the MRCP(UK) Clinical Examining Board;

  • Members of the MRCP(UK) Part 1 and Part 2 Standard Setting Groups;

  • Members of the panel of examiners for the MRCP(UK) Part 2 Clinical Examination (PACES)

  • Full and co-opted members of the MRCP(UK) Management Board and associated advisory committees; currently the Academic Liaison Advisory Group, the Validation, Audit and Research Group, the MRCP(UK) IT Advisory Group and the MRCP(UK) Publications Advisory Group;

Teaching MRCP(UK) Examination candidates

  • All examiners should be allowed and, indeed, be encouraged to teach junior doctors/candidates, as described in the preamble, by means of bedside teaching or on courses for the Written Papers or Clinical Examination (PACES) at their own or other NHS hospitals, University Departments or Postgraduate Centres provided such teaching is organised by these bodies or the Royal Colleges of Physicians. Although junior doctors/candidates may be charged fees to attend these courses, such fees should be used primarily to cover the costs of the courses including payment to teachers. Any overall profit should be retained by the course organisers, as defined above, to provide further educational or academic activities.

  • It is not acceptable for examiners to take part in commercially run courses, even if these were to take place in premises such as those listed in the previous paragraph. If a non-examiner takes part in such courses and is invited subsequently to become an examiner, it is on the understanding that such teaching will cease.

  • When taking part in any of the MRCP(UK) orientated teaching described above, an individual's position as an examiner should not be used in publicising a course.

Publications on the MRCP(UK) Examination

  • It is not acceptable for examiners to write or contribute to non-College books or other materials such as CD Roms or to re-edit or revise existing texts or other publications whose specific purpose is to help candidates prepare for any or all parts of the MRCP(UK) Examination.

  • In addition, examiners are not permitted to make use of any material copyrighted by the Royal Colleges of Physicians, particularly that held in the MRCP(UK) Question Bank.

October 2006