Trainees face stiffer test of clinical skills

As reported last week the GOC debated the idea, proposed by its education committee, at its March 1 meeting. The decision aims to allow students to be tested more thoroughly on clinical skills during the PQE 2 examination. It was considered that continued testing of pure knowledge at PQE 2 was not in the best interests of the trainees or the profession, and the public would ultimately benefit from students who could concentrate on gaining the clinical skills needed to act as a base for future practice. At last week's meeting, member of Council Bob Chappell said that while he was in favour of the principle he was concerned over how much factual information the GOC had to hand on this. 'This matter is the tip of an iceberg,' he said. 'University courses have changed over the years: the academic content has increased and the clinical content has decreased. 'We have a very new type of student moving into the pre-reg year which places a different responsibility on our pre-reg supervisors.' The education committee took advice from the heads of training of optometry in the UK and it was reported to Council that these measures were reasonable and fair. In addition, the Council agreed to adopt the timetable for the introduction in November 2002 of a revised PQE 1 to test the core curriculum for undergraduate training in optometry. Tony Hewitt, chairman of the GOC's companies committee, said: 'It is likely there will be as many as 80 graduates coming out of university without pre-registration places. There needs to be close co-operation between all parties to achieve a solution.'