PRPlayers

Delivering Reliable Role Play Support for High-Stakes Psychiatric Assessment

Client Overview

The Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych) is the UK’s professional body for psychiatry, responsible for training, education, and examinations, including the Clinical Assessment of Skills and Competencies (CASC) - the final exam for the MRCPsych qualification. This high-stakes exam uses trained role players to simulate psychiatric consultations, ensuring a robust, standardised assessment process.

Challenge

RCPsych required a trusted provider to deliver standardised, emotionally accurate role players for its face-to-face CASC exams in Sheffield. The challenges included:

• Delivering realistic portrayals of complex psychiatric scenarios

• Maintaining consistency and calibration across multiple circuits and candidates

• Operating under strict timed exam conditions

• Managing sensitive, emotionally challenging content

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, RCPsych also needed to rapidly transition the CASC to a virtual format, demanding role players to adapt to remote delivery without compromising performance quality.

Solution

PRP, a longstanding partner of RCPsych, met these challenges by providing professional role players trained specifically in psychiatric scenarios. In addition to their clinical scenario training, PRP implemented the following steps to ensure seamless delivery across different formats:

• Scenario-Specific Briefings: Role players received comprehensive briefings tailored to each exam session to ensure standardized, authentic portrayals.

• Online Platform Training: To facilitate the virtual transition during the pandemic, PRP provided targeted training for all role players on how to use the online assessment platform. This ensured that every actor was comfortable with virtual interactions, camera angles, and remote communication protocols while maintaining performance quality.

• Adaptability Across Environments: Role players were prepared to switch effortlessly between virtual and in-person settings, upholding confidentiality, sensitivity, and consistency in every exam.

• Transition Support: As the exam format shifted back to face-to-face delivery in Sheffield, the experience gained in the online setting was leveraged to enhance overall role player readiness and performance.

Results

• Uninterrupted Assessment Quality: PRP’s role players supported the national CASC examination, ensuring consistency during the pandemic through effective online delivery and a smooth return to in-person sessions.

• Seamless Platform Transition: Training on the digital platform resulted in confident, well-prepared role players, ensuring that virtual exams met the same high standards as face-to-face formats.

• Maintained Standards: Examiners and organisers consistently praised the standardisation, professionalism, and adaptability of the role players in both settings.

Impact

Through targeted training and flexible delivery methods, PRP has ensured a reliable, fair assessment process for future psychiatrists. By integrating online platform training into our approach, we successfully supported RCPsych in maintaining the integrity, safety, and consistency of one of the UK’s most important medical examinations.