MRCS Part B Revision · Procedural and technical skills
List Planning — MRCS Part B Procedural and technical skills
By Dr Richard Miller, MBChB FRCS · Reviewed
List Planning is a procedural station. Two of the seventeen examined stations in the MRCS Part B OSCE are procedural. The procedural stations ask you to perform a practical task, usually on a model, while explaining what you are doing and why.
What you need to know for the List Planning station
List Planning
Important things to consider:
- Latex will need to go first on a list due to latex particles
- High INR needs to be below 1.4 if spinal and will need discussion with anaesthetists and likely afternoon list
- Infected cases go last
- Children first if possible
- PPM will require care with diathermy
- Diabetic lady should be on sliding scale – is an Ex-Fix appropriate for this patient?
What are you asked at the List Planning station?
The station runs to 6 questions over nine minutes. These are the questions as they are put to you; the model answers are in the question bank.
- Describe your list order, how you came to this decision and what you would do to ensure the lists run smoothly.
- What could you do to ensure the list runs smoothly?
- Is an External-Fixator appropriate in an elderly diabetic patient?
- What alternatives are there?
- Mr A 19/3/1945 Total colectomy PMH HTN, T2DM, MRSA positive DH NKDA. Novorapid, Lanctus, Bisoprolol Mr B 1/2/1949 Left inguinal hernia repair PMH COPD DH NKDA. Salbutamol nebs, home oxygen Mrs C 6/8/1938 Lap cholycystectomy PMH PPM, HTN DH NKDA. Frusemide, Bisoprolol You have 3 minutes to order the patient list below. Describe your decision making process
- Describe your decision making process
How is the procedural and technical skills station marked in MRCS Part B?
The two procedural stations are marked differently from each other. Procedural skills with a patient carries 8 marks for clinical and technical skill and 4 each for knowledge, communication and professionalism. Procedural skills, technical, performed on a model rather than a person, carries 12 for skill and 8 for knowledge, with no communication or professionalism marks available.
FAQ
What does the List Planning station ask?
It opens with "Describe your list order, how you came to this decision and what you would do to ensure the lists run smoothly." and runs to 6 questions over nine minutes. The two procedural stations are marked differently from each other. Procedural skills with a patient carries 8 marks for clinical and technical skill and 4 each for knowledge, communication and professionalism. Procedural skills, technical, performed on a model rather than a person, carries 12 for skill and 8 for knowledge, with no communication or professionalism marks available.
What procedural skills are tested in MRCS Part B?
Two of the seventeen examined stations are procedural: one with a patient and one purely technical. Candidates most often report suturing, abscess incision and drainage, catheterisation and chest drain insertion.
How is a procedural station marked?
The station with a patient carries 8 of its 20 marks for clinical and technical skill and 4 each for knowledge, communication and professionalism. The technical station carries 12 for skill and 8 for knowledge, with no communication marks.
Should I talk while I perform the procedure?
At the station with a patient, yes: a third of the marks there are for communication and professionalism, and they are gone if you work in silence. At the purely technical station those marks do not exist, so the technique itself is what counts.
How many stations are in the MRCS Part B OSCE?
Seventeen examined stations of nine minutes each, with a minute to read the task before each one. Two preparation stations and at least one rest station bring the circuit to about twenty, and the exam takes about three and a half hours.
What is the pass mark for MRCS Part B?
There is no published pass mark. The cut score is set separately for Applied Knowledge and Applied Skills, for each circuit, by borderline regression. Published pass rates across the 2024/25 diets ranged from 51% to 66%.
Can I fail a station and still pass?
Yes. There is no rule about how many stations you may fail: the cut score applies to your total mark in each component, so a weak station costs the marks you lost on it and strong stations elsewhere can make them back. Applied Knowledge and Applied Skills are passed separately and must both be passed at the same sitting, so a strong anatomy performance cannot rescue a weak communication one.
Dr Richard Miller, MBChB FRCS
Station summaries are reviewed against the current intercollegiate MRCS syllabus and the published marking blueprint. Guidance changes between diets: check the royal colleges' own pages before relying on a date, a fee or a threshold.
Practise this station
The question bank carries the model answer to every question above, with the rest of the procedural and technical skills stations.
More procedural and technical skills stations