Can assessment be a barrier to successful professional development?

In recent years, there has been a profound shift towards objectivity in high stakes clinical assessments, to reassure the regulators and the public that our graduating clinicians are competent. However, a recent report has suggested that since the introduction of high stakes assessment the relative levels of patient harm have increased. Although, direct causation has not been claimed it is incumbent upon responsible educators to reflect on the possibility that our students are passing the assessments but the assessments are not sophisticated enough to predict real-world competency. In addition, there has been an increasing focus of the student population on seeing the purpose of their clinical education being to pass assessments, rather than to treat patients. This unfortunate focus likely stems from their school education that develops a fixed task focused mindset. In this manuscript, the authors explore the potential issues over mindset and assessment sophistication, and offer possible solutions to tackle both problems.