Shiken

The Multi-Specialty Recruitment Assessment (MSRA) is a computer-based assessment, delivered in partnership with Work Psychology Group in the UK, which has been designed to assess some of the essential competences outlined in the UK Person Specifications and is based around clinical scenarios.

There are two component parts to the MSRA - a Professional Dilemmas (PD) paper and a Clinical Problem Solving (CPS) paper.

The Professional Dilemmas (PD) paper is a Situational Judgement Test (SJT). This part of the assessment focuses on a candidate’s approach to working as a doctor. Specifically, the paper measures one’s understanding of situations that arise for doctors in the NHS (specifically during a Foundation Placement), judgement in differentiating between appropriate and inappropriate responses, and the ability to recognise the most important concerns in any situation. It focuses on appropriate behaviour with respect to interacting with patients and colleagues and in managingone’s own workload. It does not require specific knowledge of experience in specialty training but does assume general familiarity with typical primary and secondary care procedures.

The test covers three core domains:

▪ Professional integrity

▪ Coping with pressure 

▪ Empathy and sensitivity

In the CPS section candidates are presented with clinical scenarios that require them to exercise judgement and problem solving skills to determine appropriate diagnosis and management of patients. This is not a test of knowledge per se, but rather one’s ability to apply it appropriately. The items are based on Foundation-level clinical practice, and test higher level knowledge synthesis of medical knowledge.