The Basics: 

• 2 verbal cases - week 2 and week 4
• 1 written case discussion
• Timetable of activities

In more detail:

Overall block performance

The grading for this block is comprised of assessment of your overall attendance, participation and clinical skills. You are required to submit a copy of your timetable of activities undertaken during the block at the end of week 4.This should be emailed to Hilary Freed at hilary.freed@nhs.net

Verbal Case Presentations

You will be asked to verbally present two patients during the block – a full case history and mental state examination is expected. These should be different patients that you have interviewed yourself. If you are struggling to find someone, your consultant will be able to point you in the right direction. You should check with them at the start of the week when and where they want to hear your case.

The format for the these is typically that each student will be required to demonstrate their clinical skills by spending 1 hour with a patient to take a history, completing a mental state examination, and preparing a diagnostic formulation and management plan which they will present to the supervising consultant or deputy shortly afterwards.

You should arrange to present your cases to your consultant for the week at the end of weeks 2 and 4. Week 2 will allow the consultant to provide you with constructive feedback about your performance only, whilst your performance at the end of Week 4 will contribute to your overall mark for the block.

Written Patient Presentation

You will be expected to complete a further written patient presentation during the psychiatry block. This should be written according to the general description of Patient Presentations in the Year 4 Handbook. This should be based on a patient that you have seen and interviewed yourself, and different from the two patients you present verbally.

In the discussion of management you should include consideration of investigations and treatment and also include a care plan for the patient. You should include a physical examination – in Psychiatric settings such an examination may not always  be possible OR practical  – but you will be expected to say why you did not examine the patient and use admission notes to supplement your case or add what you would look for on examination if you were able to perform it.

Please remember in the discussion section of your essay it is important to consider the patient from a multidisciplinary point of view, as your role as the psychiatrist is to oversee and coordinate other members of the MDT to provide the best care available. No amount of medication alone is going to fix the patient’s relationship difficulties, homelessness or debt problems…

You should hand in your written case by the end of Week 4 to your consultant, as well as a copy to Hilary Freed. This can be emailed to hilary.freed@nhs.net

Marking Criteria
The grades defined on the overall assessment sheet are listed below:

There is now a detailed marking scheme for the written presentation to improve the consistency of the assessment processes and feedback to students.  There should a statement in the work either at the beginning or the end that the work is the student’s own and not plagiarised.  If there is any suspicion of plagiarism the department should be contacted directly.  Marks should be deducted if there is patient identifiable information in the text. There is no maximum word limit for this piece of work.  Areas of the written patient presentation that will be examined :

Please note that these assessments must be completed to the Tutors’ satisfaction during the psychiatry placements. Students can not progress to the end of year examinations without having completed them.