This week, OPTICIAN begins a regular series aimed at familiarising all practitioners with the core competencies specified by the GOC.
Eye care professionals now have to be familiar with the core competencies specified by the General Optical Council as necessary pre-requisites to be on their register and, therefore, to be able to continue to practise.
As such, the competencies now form the basis of training programmes in educational establishments and also during pre-registration periods. They are also the basis upon which continuing education and training, now a statutory obligation for all on the GOC register to undertake to maintain that status, are approved and accredited.
This week, we establish what each of the competencies is for optometrists, contact lens opticians and dispensing opticians. Each of the competencies will be expanded upon to describe exactly to what they refer. The aim then is to develop a list of competency achievements over the coming year.
This will obviously be of direct interest to pre-registration optometrists and their supervisors who will be familiarising themselves with the new competency-based practice assessment approach to qualification. It is also hoped, however, that as the series develops, hints and clinical pearls will be used to illustrate various points that may be of interest and value to all our readers.
We begin with a simple list of the core competency subject areas for each of the three eye care professions on the GOC register.
Optometrists - Eight competency core subjects
<25C6> Ocular examination
Dispensing Opticians - Eight competency core subjects
Contact Lens Opticians
CLOs have a set list of nine competencies, all obviously relating to contact lens work, which are divided into 'high assessment competencies', that is ones it is essential that they may be demonstrated to a satisfactory level, and 'medium assessment competencies' of which there are just two from the nine.
Why have them?
For a practitioner to be first registered, he or she has to show by some means of assessment that they are competent in the areas listed. This may be by specific examination or some form of continuing assessment programme.
Once registered, the obligation for continuing education and training means that each accredited CET event or article has to represent in some way one or more of the listed competencies.
It is important for anyone either studying for qualification or organising a CET event which is to be GOC accredited to be familiar with the competency subjects.
It could be argued that the topics listed above cover everything and obviously they need to be expanded on significantly if they are to have any meaning. In the next few weeks in this slot, each of the core subjects will be expanded into individual competency areas, each of which will vary in terms of its value.
Some 'high-value competencies' are considered absolutely essential and failure to meet the level would render one ineligible for registration. Others may simply require some further experience or training in order to be met.
It is important at the outset to understand that competencies are now seen as a framework for entry level skill and all practitioners listed on the GOC register are assumed to meet these competencies without exception. CET is undertaken to ensure that entry level status is maintained. Further training to take one to a higher level of skill or specialism is what is known as continuing professional development or CPD.