Professional Dilemmas (PD) paper
What is PD Paper?
Professional Dilemmas (PD) paper doesn’t evaluate your knowledge, technical, or clinical skills; instead, its purpose is to determine if you possess the essential qualities of a competent doctor.
The Professional Dilemmas (PD) paper is crafted to assess an applicant’s non-cognitive abilities, including problem-solving and interpersonal skills. It assesses various attributes such as your commitment to professionalism, focus on patient care, ability to manage stress, effective communication, and teamwork skills.
Given that the number of applicants exceeds the available training positions each year, PD Paper scores play a crucial role in shortlisting candidates for interviews. Furthermore, PD paper scores are carried forward to the final ranking and allocation of training places.
Format
The Professionals Dilemma Paper poses 50 situational judgment questions for 95 Minutes, 42 of which are scored and 8 are pilot questions with no impact on the final grade.
About half of them involve ranking options, and the other half are multiple-choice questions.
You’ll be responding to scenarios by choosing actions to address the situation. The response options are practical, and the “best response” is always among the choices.
Applicants are presented with a range of options and asked to choose the most appropriate action in a given situation. Candidates respond to a written prompt, detailing how they would handle a specific situation. The scoring of the PD Paper focuses on attitudes that align best with the responsibilities of a General Practitioner.
Structure of PD Paper
Here’s the structure of PD Paper:
- NDA – Before you begin the test, it’s necessary to agree to a non-disclosure agreement.
- Tutorial – You can choose to take a short tutorial before starting the computer-based test. This tutorial is designed to familiarize you with the test interface, making it easier for you to navigate during the actual assessment.
- PD Paper(90 minutes) – The actual exam consists of three parts, each with different types of questions. It includes a total of 40 questions.
- Survey – After completing the exam, you’ll have the opportunity to provide feedback through a survey.
This structure is designed to assess various aspects of your decision-making and interpersonal skills while facing different scenarios.
Scoring Categories
It’s essential to approach each question individually. Your answers to previous questions regarding the same scenario should not influence your responses to subsequent questions. Additionally, for questions involving multiple linked scenarios, it’s crucial to address each part independently.
The scoring system follows a “near-miss” approach, meaning there’s no negative marking. Your marks are based on how closely your response aligns with the correct answer. For example, in a rating question, if you deemed a response “inappropriate,” but the correct answer was “somewhat inappropriate,” you would still receive some marks, reflecting your proximity to the correct choice.
Categories Of Questions
1. Multiple Choice Questions:
– For these questions, you’ll need to choose three answers from a set of eight options for each scenario. These three chosen answers should logically fit together to form a solution. There are three possible formats for these questions:
2. Ranking Questions:
– In ranking questions, you’ll be required to arrange five answer options in order of appropriateness, from the most appropriate to the least appropriate, for each scenario. There are three possible formats for these questions:
Target Domains
1. Commitment To Professionalism:
Behavioural indicators linked to this competency.
- Demonstrates probity (displays honesty, integrity, aware of ethical dilemmas, respects confidentiality)
- Capacity to take responsibility for own action
2. Coping With Pressure:
Behavioural indicators linked to this competency.
- Capability to operate under pressure and awareness of own limitations
- Demonstrates initiative and resilience to adapt and respond to changing circumstances, timescales, organisational structures and systems
3. Focus On Patient Care:
- Capacity to work effectively in partnership with others and demonstrate leadership where appropriate
- Demonstrates a facilitative, collaborative approach and respects others’ views
- Demonstrates capability and willingness to work in multi-disciplinary teams and respects multi-agency contribution to health
4. Communication Skills:
- Capability to communicate effectively in written and spoken English to a wide variety of audiences, adapting language to the situation as appropriate
- Capability to listen, build rapport, persuade and negotiate with individuals and groups
5. Teamwork Skills:
Effective teamwork is a cornerstone of high-quality healthcare delivery. It fosters improved patient outcomes, reduced medical errors, enhanced communication, greater job satisfaction, and the prevention of burnout.
