Engaging with assessments policies and procedures

We've added new paragraphs to Achieving good medical practice about the conduct we expect around engaging in assessment. It states:

• Whilst on your PA or AA course you will need to pass many types of assessment including written and clinical exams, reports and workplace-based assessment. This programme of assessment is designed to make sure that you are competent and safe to enter the profession when you qualify. Therefore, it is vital for patient safety that the results of assessments and exams are a valid and reliable measure of your ability. You must engage fully with the assessment process by ensuring any written work you submit is your own and by not attempting to cheat or pass off the work of others as your own in clinical or knowledge assessments. You must not help fellow students to cheat by sharing the content of any exams with them.

We've strengthened our principles around cheating and plagiarism, adding information about sharing exam materials and reordering the sections to match our Professional behaviours and fitness to practise guidance for PA and AA courses (paragraph 111).

The updated Good medical practice states that PAs and AAs must manage resources effectively and sustainably. We’ve reflected this in Achieving good medical practice and have highlighted how this applies to you as a PA or AA student.

• Registered PAs and AAs must make good use of the resources available to them, and provide the best service possible, taking account of their responsibilities to patients and the wider population. They should choose sustainable solutions when they’re able to, provided these don’t compromise care standards, and consider supporting initiatives to reduce the environmental impact of healthcare. (paragraph 12)
• As a PA or AA student, by the end of your studies you should be able to outline the principles of sustainable healthcare and apply it to your PA or AA practice. See our Sustainability Q&A for more information. Sustainability decisions made by students need to be in line with course provider or employer policy and/or the clinical environment in which you are placed. (paragraph 13)

We'e also included the redrafted principles for PAs and AAs on managing conflicts of interests and co-operating with legal and regulatory requirements within the guidance.

• PAs and AAs:
• must not allow any interests they have to affect, or be seen to affect the way they propose, provide or prescribe treatments, refer patients, or commission services
• if faced with a conflict of interest, must be open about it with patients and employers, declare it in line with local arrangements, and be prepared to exclude themselves from decision making
• must not ask for or accept – from patients, colleagues or others – any incentive payments, gifts or hospitality that may affect or be seen to affect the way they propose, provide or prescribe treatments, refer or commission services for patients, or offer such incentives to others.
• should, wherever possible, avoid providing medical care to themselves or anyone with whom they have a close personal relationship. They must seek independent medical advice on issues relating to their own health.

This also applies to you as a PA or AA student. (paragraph 104)

• To maintain patient safety, PAs and AAs must cooperate with formal inquiries, patient safety investigations, and complaints procedures. They must provide all relevant information and be open and honest. They must also tell the GMC without delay if, anywhere in the world:
• they have accepted a caution (or equivalent) from a prosecuting authority
• they have been charged with a criminal offence in person or by post
• they have been found guilty of a criminal offence. (paragraph 105)