Many of us have only heard of appraisals happening in the corporate or in the IT sectors. Here in the NHS, appraisals are done annually for all doctors.
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What is an appraisal?
It is a meeting that is taken place yearly, between a doctor and a colleague who is trained to be an appraiser. It is a chance for the doctor to reflect and learn from the year that has gone by. The appraisal is not done to judge a doctor’s skill or knowledge nor is it to decide if the doctor has performed well or not but it is rather a platform to showcase one’s achievements and develop a plan for the upcoming year.
Appraiser
A medical appraiser will normally be a licensed doctor with knowledge of the context in which the doctor works.
Purpose
Medical appraisal has four purposes:
- To allow you to demonstrate your fitness to practise for revalidation.
- To help you enhance the quality of your work by planning your professional development.
- To help you consider your own needs.
- To help you work productively and in line with your organisation.
During this meeting:
- The appraiser looks at achievements, challenges and the lessons learnt, including reviewing the previous year’s personal development plan objectives.
- Also looks forward to their aspirations, learning needs and the recording of new personal development plan objectives.
An important aspect of this appraisal is that the doctor needs to use supporting information to demonstrate that they have met with the principles and values set out in good medical practice.
Supporting documents:
- Continuing Professional development
- Quality improvement activity
- Significant events
- Feedback from patients
- Feedback from Colleagues
- Compliments and complaints
Each and every trust has its own online system for appraisals. The key is to talk to your assigned clinical/educational supervisor and understand which is the system used for appraisals in that trust and how to go about it. In most trusts, you will have to fill an online form, upload the evidence and submit it to the appraiser.
Then fix a date and time with your appraiser for your appraisal meeting. Then after the meeting, the appraisal will be submitted to the trust.
What happens to appraisals in training?
When a doctor gets into training, an ARCP is conducted instead.
ARCP
The Annual Review of Competency Progression (ARCP) process is the means by which doctors in training are reviewed each year to ensure that they are offering safe, quality patient care, and to assess their progression against standards set down in the curriculum for their training programme. An appraisal is important for the revalidation process. GMC revalidates a registered doctor every 5 years. Revalidation is an evaluation of your fitness to practise.
This process:
- Supports doctors in regularly reflecting on how they can develop or improve their practice.
- Gives patients confidence that doctors are up to date with their practice
- Promotes improved quality of care by driving improvements in clinical governance.
All doctors who wish to retain their licence to practise need to participate in revalidation.
References and Further Reading:
Written by: Dr Ashitha Nair
Edited by: Siddharth Sunil
