Placement Supervision Group (PSG)

What is the Placement Supervision Group (PSG)?

Feedback on clinical performance is vital to the development of a doctor. The clinical learning environment supports the provision of structured and constructive feedback from the wider multi-professional clinical team. The Placement Supervision Group (PSG) feedback tool is a useful independent tool in the e-portfolio. Regular feedback from the PSG aids the development of the foundation doctor (FD) and provides additional evidence of progression and achievement of the Curriculum outcomes. It enables clinical supervisors (CS) to obtain in depth feedback on their FD’s performance in the workplace to support the CS end of placement report.

The CS responsibility is to identify senior members of the multi-professional team who have worked with their FD, to formalise feedback on the FD’s performance and contribute to the CS end of placement report. For more information, see pages 40 and 41 of the FP Curriculum 2021 (2026 Revision).

Requirement

A minimum of one satisfactory PSG feedback summary report per training year is required to be eligible for a progression ARCP outcome.

Where there are significant concerns raised by the PSG about a FD’s performance in one placement, at least one more CS report supported by evidence from a PSG must be completed before the next critical progression point.

PSG members

The PSG is a group of individuals allied to the FD’s placement, who interact with the FD on a regular (at least daily or weekly) basis and who can provide constructive senior feedback on the FD’s clinical performance both to the FD themselves and the CS.

There is no minimum or maximum number of members stipulated in the PSG. However, to help ensure the feedback is appropriate, fair and non-judgemental, and to minimise bias, ideally three or more colleagues from one placement should submit a PSG individual feedback form. In a general practice placement, the PSG may include only one or two GPs.

The clinical supervisor can ask senior nursing staff, consultants, GPs, resident doctors (more senior than F2) or other members of the multidisciplinary team. Foundation doctors should not be asked to provide PSG feedback. The PSG is driven by the supervisor (not the foundation doctor) and the information gathered can help inform the end of placement report.

Throughout the training year, the PSG’s roles include:

  • observing the foundation doctor’s workplace practice
  • undertaking or facilitating supervised learning events
  • providing contemporaneous feedback to the foundation doctor
  • providing structured feedback to the clinical supervisor
  • raising concerns immediately when unsatisfactory performance is identified.

What is the difference between PSG and TAB?

The PSG collection of rater feedback works in a similar way to Team Assessment of Behaviour (TAB), but the information that is collected, and its purpose, is different:

  • Foundation doctors choose TAB contributors, whereas the CS asks for completion of the PSG
  • While TAB provides FDs feedback on their general behaviours, PSG provides feedback on their competence as a doctor and how well they understand clinical aspects and situations.

How is a PSG feedback round completed?

The CS can review individual responses, send reminders and create the PSG summary through the e-portfolio. The CS can release the PSG summary at their discretion and there is no minimum number of responses required before it can be released. Contributors’ names are not shown directly alongside their comments, but responses should not be assumed to be anonymous due to the potentially small number of responses.

Horus users: See instructions on how to manage PSG feedback in Horus ePortfolio (link leads to the open-access Horus Support Site)

Turas users: Guidance is embedded under the PSG tab in the e-portfolio and is available to FDs and supervisors.

Advantages of PSG feedback

– Captures and showcases evidence of good practice, reinforces good behaviours and competence, and helps build FD confidence
– Evidences achievement of curriculum outcomes to aid CS completing the end of placement report (particularly if FD worked minimally with CS)
– Provides additional evidence to map to FPCs
– Useful as additional evidence in specialty applications and interviews
– Helps identify the need for additional support early on

– Highlights FD’s evidence of good practice and achievement of curriculum outcomes
– Aids completion of the CS end of placement report (particularly if FD worked minimally with CS)
– Helps identify and evidence the need for additional support early on
– Facilitates timely action plans

– Highlights evidence of good practice and achievement of curriculum outcomes
– Provides important detail of progression to add to ES end of placement reports
– Helps identify and evidence the need for additional support early on
– Facilitates timely action plans
– Provides additional and contextual evidence of clinical effectiveness and progression essential to patient safety to add to the ES end of year report

– Showcases evidence of good practice and achievement of curriculum outcomes
– Provides evidence and contextualises any additional development needs required over the training year
– Evidences clinical workplace effectiveness essential to patient safety
– Provides required evidence for satisfactory ARCP ‘sign off’ (minimum one satisfactory PSG report per foundation training year (pro-rata))

How does PSG feedback support the Annual Review of Competence Progression (ARCP) process?

A FD’s progress in their training programme is assessed using a range of defined and validated assessment tools along with professional and triangulated judgements about the FD’s rate of progress.

The key elements that support decision making in the ARCP process are:

  • formative experiential learning tools (SLEs) and other evidence presented in the eportfolio
  • summative assessments using interactions with colleagues (MSF TAB, PSG, CS and ES reports)
  • triangulated judgement by an ES based on evidence from the above in the ES end of year report

Research and further resources on PSG

The PSG tool has been validated and reviewed a number of times since its introduction in the FP Curriculum 2016. See below published research on PSG by senior members of the UKFP community:

There is also a helpful, short, YouTube video introducing the tool for the FP Curriculum 2021: The Placement Supervision Group (PSG) YouTube video

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