Workplace-Based Assessments in Psychiatric Training Edited by Dinesh Bhugra and Amit Malik Cambridge University Press, 2011, £29.99, pb, 226 pp. ISBN: 9780521131803

This book has been written for supervisors, assessors, trainers and trainee doctors in psychiatry. Its main aims are to give an understanding of why workplace-based assessments (WPBAs) have been introduced, what has influenced their development and evolution, and how they are currently being used. The book encompasses a global perspective on WPBA methods used in the USA, Canada, Australia, Denmark, India and the UK, considering the political, social and educational influences on their introduction and development in psychiatric training.

The book starts off by setting the scene, giving a historical overview of assessments in medicine and a rationale for the introduction of workplace assessments, and discussing the characteristics and tensions of good assessment practice. The commoner methods of WPBAs are described. Importantly, the authors consider the patient's perspective in all of this, acknowledging the benefits of including patients’ views in the assessment of trainees.

The remainder of the book discusses the approaches to assessment of trainees in psychiatry in different countries across the globe. This gives insight into the social and political influences on assessment in these countries and the variations in approach. Highlighted are the challenges posed in each of the countries, such as assessing international graduates, adapting one country's system in another, adapting assessment tools designed for medical/surgical specialties for psychiatry and for psychotherapy, having a common assessment scheme in a country with a large number of trainee psychiatrists and developing a common assessment process where there are several postgraduate training schemes in psychiatry.

The book fills a gap in the literature on this subject. Refreshingly, it gives the reader an understanding of why WPBAs are the way forward, the advantages and disadvantages of using them in medicine and psychiatry and how different countries have created or adapted WPBAs for their own trainees. It offers more than just another guide on ‘how to conduct’ or ‘how to pass’ WPBAs.