Workplace-Based Assessments: Turning Everyday Practice into Meaningful CPD
Continuing Professional Development is often framed as something separate from clinical work — courses, modules, webinars. But in reality, some of the most powerful learning happens in the moment: during a procedure, a difficult conversation, or a clinical decision under pressure.
That’s exactly where Workplace-Based Assessments (WBAs) come in.
Osler has introduced a new suite of WBA forms designed to help members capture these real-world learning opportunities — while also addressing one of the most challenging areas of CPD: Reviewing Performance (RP).
Why WBAs Matter
Reviewing Performance is often the hardest category to complete meaningfully. It requires more than passive learning — it demands reflection, feedback, and insight into how we actually practice.
WBAs provide a structured way to do this.
They are:
Evidence-based tools used widely across medical training programs
Designed to assess real clinical performance, not theoretical knowledge
Focused on feedback, reflection, and improvement
Instead of trying to retrospectively justify learning, WBAs allow you to capture it as it happens — in a way that is credible, defensible, and genuinely useful.
How Osler WBAs Work
Each Osler WBA includes:
A structured assessment form that can be printed and completed in the workplace
Clear prompts to guide the assessor through the evaluation
Dedicated sections for constructive feedback and reflection
Supporting assessor notes to improve consistency and reliability between assessors
The process is simple:
Perform a clinical task (procedure, consultation, communication scenario, etc.)
Ask a supervisor, colleague, or peer to observe
Complete the WBA form together
Reflect on the feedback and log it in your CPD portfolio, uploading your form as evidence
This transforms a routine clinical interaction into a high-quality RP activity.
What Can You Be Assessed On?
One of the strengths of the Osler WBA library is its flexibility.
We’ve included generic assessment forms that can be applied across a wide range of clinical activities, including:
Procedural skills (e.g. blood gas sampling, suturing, line insertion)
Communication skills (e.g. consent, breaking bad news, handover)
Clinical reasoning and decision-making
Professional behaviours and teamwork
In practice, this means you can be assessed on almost any task in healthcare — turning your day-to-day work into structured, recognised CPD.
More Than a Tick-Box Exercise
The real value of WBAs isn’t in the form — it’s in the conversation.
Good WBAs create space for:
Honest feedback from colleagues
Insight into blind spots in your practice
Deliberate reflection on performance
Identification of specific areas for improvement
This is the essence of Reviewing Performance — not just documenting what you did, but understanding how you did it, and how to do it better.
Built for Real-World Use
We’ve designed these WBAs with the realities of clinical practice in mind:
Quick to complete
Flexible across specialties and settings
Usable with supervisors, peers, or multidisciplinary colleagues
They are practical tools — not academic exercises — designed to fit seamlessly into your workflow.
What’s Next
This is just the beginning.
The current library focuses on high-quality generic forms, but over time we will expand the collection to include:
Procedure-specific assessments
Specialty-focused WBAs
Enhanced guidance to support both assessors and clinicians
Later, we’ll digitise these assessments, providing you with unparalleled ease of completion.
Our goal is to build a comprehensive system that makes Reviewing Performance simple, meaningful, and accessible.
We Want Your Feedback
This feature will evolve with input from the clinicians who use it.
If you have suggestions, ideas, or feedback — whether about usability, content, or new assessment types — we’d love to hear from you.
Please contact Osler CMO, Dr Todd Fraser
Workplace-Based Assessments bridge the gap between clinical work and professional development.
They don’t add extra work — they recognise the learning that’s already happening every day.