The CEX/C is a method of assessing skills essential to the provision of good clinical care and to facilitate feedback. It assesses the trainee’s clinical and professional skills on the ward, on ward rounds, in Accident and Emergency or in outpatient clinics. It was designed originally by the American Board of Internal Medicine and was contextualised to the surgical environment.
Trainees will be assessed on different clinical problems that they encounter from within the curriculum in a range of clinical settings. Trainees are encouraged to choose a different assessor for each assessment but one of the assessors must be the trainee’s current Assigned Educational Supervisor. Each assessor must have expertise in the clinical problem.
The assessment involves observing the trainee interact with a patient in a clinical encounter. The areas of competence covered include: consent (CEXC), history taking, physical examination, professionalism, clinical judgement, communication skills, organisation/efficiency and overall clinical care. Most encounters should take 15-20 minutes.
Assessors do not need to have prior knowledge of the trainee. The assessor’s evaluation is recorded on a structured form that enables the assessor to provide developmental verbal feedback to the trainee immediately after the encounter. Feedback would normally take about 5 minutes.
CEX Form
CEXC Form
CEX/C Guidance
Tips for using CEX/C