The APIE assessment station
Written and checked against the NMC’s published sources by The NMCMATE editorial team.Last checked .
Assessment is the first of the four APIE stations and it sets up the other three. What you find here is what you plan from, act on and evaluate against, so an incomplete assessment is not one bad station, it is a weak foundation for four. The planning, implementation and evaluation stations each have their own page.
What a structured assessment involves
- Introducing yourself, checking the patient's identity, and gaining consent before you begin.
- Working to a recognised structure rather than an improvised order, so nothing is skipped under pressure.
- Taking and recording a full set of observations. In UK practice these are charted on a NEWS2 chart, which scores 7 parameters.
- Asking about allergies, and about pain, rather than waiting to be told.
- Listening to what the patient volunteers and following it up, instead of continuing down a fixed list.
- Recording what you found legibly and escalating anything that needs escalating.
Where candidates come unstuck
- Charting observations without acting on them. A set of numbers that clearly warrants escalation, written neatly and left, reads as not having understood them.
- Skipping allergies. It is quick, it is expected, and its absence is conspicuous.
- Talking over the patient. The station assesses communication as well as clinical reasoning, and a candidate who interrupts loses on both.
- Forgetting that the patient is a person. Introductions, consent, dignity and privacy are marked, not assumed.
- Running out of things to say and stopping early. Silence is not neutral; there are usually marks still on the table.
Common questions
- What is assessed in the APIE assessment station?
- A structured, systematic assessment of a patient, including observations, and the communication and professionalism you show while doing it. The specific scenario varies.
- Do I need to use a particular assessment framework?
- The NMC does not mandate one on its published OSCE page. What matters is that your assessment is systematic and complete rather than improvised, and that you can say why you are doing what you are doing.
- Can I practise this station with an AI patient?
- Yes. You hold the conversation by typing, the simulated patient answers, and you get a marked report afterwards showing which criteria you met. Assessment is the first of the four APIE stages the simulator carries, and a sitting runs the four in sequence the way the exam does. Simulator attempts come with every access plan, 4 of them with the 99 days plan, which is a full APIE sitting, and in larger packs on their own. Our simulator covers assessment-style stations from the 10: you hold the conversation with a simulated patient by typing, and are marked against criteria we wrote ourselves. The four clinical skills stations are performed on manikins and equipment and are not simulated here. The result is a simulated verdict, not a prediction of how an NMC assessor would mark you.
Practise an assessment station
Talk to a simulated patient and get a marked report against the station criteria.
Simulator attempts come with every access plan, 4 of them with the 99 days plan, which is a full APIE sitting, and in larger packs on their own.
Stations are added and rewritten as the exam guidance changes, and every attempt runs against the current version, so a revision reaches your next station rather than a later edition of something you bought.
This page is one part of the exam. Work through the whole thing with the NMC OSCE pages.