The new curriculum for doctors on the seven-year ophthalmic specialist training (OST) programme begins today, ready for the start of the new training year.
Approved by the General Medical Council in May this year, this new curriculum sets out the OST purpose, content, process and programme of assessment, providing doctors with the knowledge, skills and approach to practise as ophthalmologists.
It incorporates the GMC’s Generic Professional Capabilities (GPC) framework and meets the GMC standards of curricular design.
The three key objectives of the curriculum are:
- To describe specific professional capabilities that incorporate the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to practice ophthalmology at consultant level
- To set the expected standards of knowledge and performance of professional skills for each stage of training, through a series of learning outcomes
- To define the critical advancement points at which the required standards must be achieved.
Alongside the new curriculum, the ePortfolio platform that ophthalmologists use to document their training progress has been changed. This digital tool enables trainees to record their progress against the required learning outcomes by gathering evidence during routine clinical work using electronic assessment tools and supervisor reports.
Sarah Maling, chair of the Training Committee, said: “Today’s launch of the new curriculum is the culmination of several years of hard work by our Curriculum Subcommittee and project team, with support and input from a wide variety of stakeholders, including our lead dean, Gary Wares.
“My admiration for the team and heartfelt thanks go to everyone who has contributed.”
As part of the curriculum development project, the team has built a new microsite where all the learning outcomes, assessments and guidance can be found in one place. You can access it from the College website home page here.