COT to Calgary Cambridge

The nMRCGP COT criteria are derived from the summative old MRCGP video criteria, so may not necessarily be the appropriate springboard for the behavioural change needed when developing communication skills.

The big question for trainers, then: when using a COT to assess a video, how do we triangulate the simple COT criteria with the Calgary Cambridge criteria.

This table points to the Calgary Cambridge criteria for each COT criterion (although in practice most Calgary-Cambridge criteria will apply in some way to each COT criterion, it is not a straightforward linear relationship!). Each learning need may therefore cascade into other Cal-Cam areas, and the skill of the educator is in developing this.

The two sets of criteria in question here are trying to do different things, and are looking at the consultation from a different perspective. By moving the focus from Cot to Cal-Cam, we can explore the behavioural skills needed to allow improvemnt in the COT "score".