Conducting the mini-Clinical Examination (Mini-CEX)
A Mini-Clinical Examination assessment involves a registrar being directly observed while performing a specific clinical task during a patient encounter.
The cases for Mini-CEXs are not pre-selected but taken from patients seen during normal clinical work. The assessor sees the patient with registrar in real time.
The assessor observes and rates the encounter and provides structured feedback on the registrar’s performance.
Requirements
- There are minimum requirements for the number, topics and complexity of Mini-CEX’s at each stage of training. For stage one registrars these requirements are documented above.
- There is no maximum allowed number of WBAs. Registrars may complete additional WBAs as an opportunity for learning and feedback, or as required to fulfil the necessary topic / complexity requirements.
The Mini-CEX encounter
- The registrar should introduce themselves to the patient, explain the purpose of the assessment and the role of the assessor, and gain consent from the patient.
- The assessor observes the clinical encounter without interrupting the registrar (unless it is to ensure patient safety)
- The assessor may corroborate the registrar’s clinical findings by performing a brief assessment themselves
Assessment and Feedback
- The assessor rates the registrar’s performance based on what they observe during the encounter.
- The assessor grades the registrar’s performance compared to the standard expected of a recently graduated FRNZCUC, guided by the Assessment Rubric
- For each encounter a rating must be made for at least one task out of history, examination, diagnostic reasoning, and management.
- For each encounter a rating must also be made of the registrar’s communication and professionalism / cultural competence
- Feedback can be sought from the patient to help inform the assessment
- Structured feedback is provided to the trainee after the encounter
Reporting and Documentation
- The Mini-CEX form is completed and uploaded to UCCIS
- UCCIS will include fields related to the to the mandatory WBA stage requirements.
- Complexity for the encounter is assessed via the Complexity Calculator
Resources
Mini-CEX Formative Assessment Form
Video Resources
The “Giving Feedback” video which is part of the Connect Communications supervisor foundation training. To access this, you will need to have created an account with ConnectCommunications and used the code for accessing the supervision training (all supervisors will have completed this before being granted approval to be a supervisor).