What is the Bristol PACES Project?
The Bristol PACES Project are designing a series of educational sessions, featuring real patients, in January/February 2027.
Background
The project is supporting Bristol-based doctors preparing for their PACES examination – the final membership exam for the Royal College of Physicians. This is a daunting, 2-hour exam, featuring real patients with real conditions. The exam features 4 examination stations, including 1 for "Neurology" where candidates must examine, and correctly detect the signs of, patients with a variety of neurological conditions, such as ataxia.
How will it work?
The organisers are aiming to have 5-10 patients with a variety of neurological conditions, including ataxia, attend for a half-day of examination practise with our resident doctors who are sitting their exam in March/April 2027. These will be qualified medical doctors in higher medical training within the NHS. The sessions will be overseen by Consultants/Registrars and members of the postgraduate medical education team, with an emphasis on feedback/teaching and hearing from our volunteers. Candidates will be in pairs, with a tutor observing their examination and feeding back.
When will the project take place?
The organisers are hoping to hold their pilot “Neurology” session on 19th February 2027, in the afternoon, in the Learning and Research building in Southmead Hospital, Bristol. They may also invite you to an ad-hoc session before this if you are particularly local/keen.
Will I be paid?
As a non-commercial course, this is a purely voluntary invitation, however, we can cover travel/parking and will provide refreshments for our volunteers as a token of our appreciation for this invaluable contribution towards local medical education.
What is being asked of me?
The half-day session, ~13:00-16:00, will feature pairs of candidates performing examinations of the volunteer's neurological systems. This can either be of the lower limbs, upper limbs or the nerves in the head and neck, depending on their specific condition. Pairs will examine each volunteer for 5-10 minutes, before rotating through the other volunteers. There will likely be 5-10 pairs of candidates. If you decide to volunteer, you will be examined between 5-10 times during the half day session. Clearly, volunteer welfare is essential and so we will aim to be sensitive to specific volunteer needs, for example if a particular movement is uncomfortable, they will accommodate the examination accordingly.
How to get involved
Email Dr Duncan Steed – Postgraduate Medical Education Fellow – [email protected]