ABSTRACT
The assessment of clinical skills is ingrained in all areas of medical practice, irrespective of the sub-specialty, from medical students through specialist training and culminating in a summative assessment before obtaining a completion certificate to practise independently. This chapter reviews the criteria for assessment tools in surgery, focuses on how to assess non-technical skills with behaviour marker tools, and considers how behaviour assessment fits with current models of assessment in surgery. There are two distinct forms of assessment: formative and summative. ‘Formative assessment is seen as taking place when teachers and learners seek to respond to student work, making judgements about what is good learning’. Summative assessment requires the trainee to reach a specific goal, and the various examinations represent summative assessment at different stages of the training programme. The chapter attempts to give advice on possible courses of action when ratings are less than acceptable in the form of remediation and retraining.
