A request to falsify an assessment

Step 1 · Read the instruction

WHAT TO DO

Check what kind of answer you need before you read the scenario closely. Ranking and choose-three questions ask for different kinds of thinking.

• 1InstructionRank these independent actions
  This is a ranking question. Judge each action as if it were the only thing you did. Don’t think “I’d do B first, then A”: NHS England says ranking options are not chronological.
• 2Instruction1, most appropriate, to 4, least appropriate
  Check the direction of the scale: here 1 is best. Each rank is used once, so you’ll need a reason for the order of the weaker options too. Marks depend on how close your whole order is to the key, not just whether your top answer is right.

Step 2 · Work out your role and who is affected

WHAT TO DO

Ask what you’re responsible for, what you can safely do and who your choice affects. This tells you whose problem each option is solving.

• 3ScenarioYou are an F2 doctor.
  A signature on an assessment form is your professional statement that you saw something happen. Responsibility for what the form says is yours, not your colleague’s.
• 4ScenarioA colleague asks you
  Your colleague is under pressure and wants help. A strong answer can protect the record and still be kind to them.

Less visibly, the training programme and future patients are affected too. They rely on an assessment meaning that a doctor was actually observed.

Step 3 · Separate facts from assumptions, and find the risk

WHAT TO DO

List what the question tells you. Then notice what you might be tempted to assume. Base your answer only on stated facts.

• 5Scenariothey confirm it did not take place
  This removes any doubt. You aren’t being asked to sign something you’re unsure about. You’re being asked to certify an event that you both know didn’t happen, which means creating a false record.
• 6ScenarioTheir deadline is tomorrow.
  The pressure is real, but there’s still time to arrange a genuine assessment. Watch for options that use the deadline as a reason to bend the truth.
• 7ScenarioThere is no immediate patient-care problem.
  No one is at risk right now, so nothing urgent competes with the honesty question. That makes this a pure integrity scenario.

Don’t assume that your colleague is habitually dishonest, that they will face disciplinary action, or that a supervisor must be told. None of these is stated, so none should affect your ranking.

Step 4 · Name the tension and write your task

WHAT TO DO

Most PD questions set two reasonable duties against each other. Name them, then write the task in one sentence. You’ll then know what a strong answer looks like before you read the options.

Here you need to help a colleague under pressure while keeping a professional record honest. Honesty can’t be traded away: you can’t sign for something you didn’t see. So the real question is how helpful you can be while refusing.

Your task: I need to refuse clearly to make a false record, and help my colleague meet the deadline legitimately if I can.

A strong answer will therefore contain a clear refusal and, ideally, a legitimate way forward.

Step 5 · Read each option literally

WHAT TO DO

Break each option into verb + recipient + timing + condition. Judge only what is written, without adding steps the option doesn’t include.

• 8Option AExplain that you cannot certify
  A gives an honest reason for refusing, in plain terms.
• 9Option Aoffer to help them arrange a genuine assessment
  This addition matters: it gives your colleague a legitimate way to meet the deadline. An offer isn’t a guarantee, but it addresses their actual problem.
• 10Option BDecline to sign and explain that the statement would be false.
  B is a clear, honest refusal with nothing harmful in it. But it stops there. Your colleague still has a deadline and no plan.
• 11Option Ctoo busy to look at it now and will think about it later
  C doesn’t refuse. “Think about it later” suggests you might agree, so the dishonest request stays open. It isn’t true either: time isn’t the problem.
• 12Option Dsign the form with yesterday’s date
  This is the trap. The first half of D, observing the procedure now, sounds legitimate. But the condition makes the record false. A form that says “observed yesterday” is untrue even if you watched today.

Step 6 · Sort into good, acceptable and poor

WHAT TO DO

Don’t try to rank four options at once. Find the clearest best and worst, then sort everything into rough groups. Ranking then becomes a few small comparisons.

You now have two smaller decisions: A versus B at the top, and C versus D at the bottom.

Step 7 · Compare neighbours and settle the order

WHAT TO DO

For each pair of neighbours, complete this sentence: “X ranks above Y because [fact from the scenario] makes [specific difference] matter here.” If you can’t name the fact, you’re probably relying on a general impression.

A versus B. A ranks above B because the deadline is tomorrow, which makes A’s offer to arrange a genuine assessment a useful difference. It solves your colleague’s real problem honestly. A wins because of what its extra words do, not because it is longer.

B versus C. B ranks above C because your colleague has asked you to sign a false statement, and B answers that request clearly. C avoids it and leaves the door open.

C versus D. Both are poor, so compare the harm. C does nothing yet. D produces a falsified record. Carrying out the dishonest act is worse than delaying a refusal.

What could change the answer

WHAT TO DO

Finish every question by asking: “What fact would make my preferred action inappropriate?” If that fact is absent, keep it out of your reasoning.

• If D said “observe them now and record today’s date”, it would be honest and could rank highly. One word, “yesterday’s”, puts it last. Read dates, names and conditions precisely.
• If your colleague kept pressing you, or you learned they had falsified other records, raising it with a supervisor could become appropriate. The scenario gives no such facts.
• Nothing changes the honesty requirement itself.

The exam-speed version

You have a little under two minutes per question in the exam. With practice, the same reasoning takes about thirty seconds:

1. Ranking, 1 is best.
2. My signature is my statement. No patient is at risk, so this is about honesty.
3. Task: refuse, and help legitimately.
4. A and B refuse; A also helps, so A first. C dodges and D falsifies; falsifying is worse, so D last.

Take this into your next question

Lesson: when an option combines a legitimate action with a false detail (“do it now, but date it yesterday”), the false detail decides its rank.

When it applies: any request to sign, record, certify or explain something on someone’s behalf. See requests to hide or misrepresent.