Is there a value to case-based discussion?

Case-based discussion (CbD) is a workplace-based assessment which is used formatively to help develop a GP trainee's performance and which will also contribute to the judgement made on a trainee's competence at the end of their training. The views of GP trainers and trainee's in their final year of training were explored quantitively to identify if CbD was of value, its limitations and whether or not it could assess a trainee's performance. The results suggest as an isolated assessment it is not possible to fully assess performance. The feedback received by the trainee did encourage the learner to develop and an improvement in performance in subsequent assessments could be demonstrated. This, however, relied on the skills and confidence of the educator in giving feedback. Further work on the development of feedback skills need to be introduced for the benefits of this assessment to be maximised.