As well as clinical issues, doctors must meet educational
objectives in areas such as practice organisation and management,
team working, audit and research. This amount of education can be
difficult to compress into a three year period of vocational
training.
The RCGP continues to press for vocational training to be
augmented by a period of higher professional education during the
early years of a principal’s career, although this would not
exclude GPs who would like to undertake higher professional
education later in their careers. This would allow areas such as
practice organisations, audit and research which cannot always be
considered in depth in the single year in practice in Vocational
Training. Higher professional education would be done on a
voluntary basis, for a minimum period of two years. There would be
no maximum time limit and the total length of time should be
determined by the educational needs of the doctor.
HPD Accreditation System
Our Higher Professional Development Working Group has introduced
an accreditation system for higher professional education
courses. The system aims to provide a quality marker to assist
College members to formulate their professional development and
make informed choices from among the educational provision
available. It will also provide programme managers with useful and
supportive feedback, which will help them develop programmes that
are:
· Up-to-date
· Relevant to
GPs
·
Stimulating
· Designed to
maximise learning
The Working Group has developed a set of accreditation
guidelines to provide course managers with useful and supportive
feedback on their course as well as provide a quality marker. The
guidelines are set out in fairly broad terms under the following
headings:
· Course
Rationale
·
Aims/Objectives
·
Selection/Admission Process and Criteria
· Access
· Course
design
· Course
content
· Course
Process
· Assessment
· Resources
· Staffing
·
Administration
· Course
monitoring and review
HPD guidelines
Procedure
Course managers are asked to submit the relevant paperwork in
accordance with the guidelines along with a cheque for £500 to
cover administrative costs. The paperwork is dispatched to the
Accreditation Panel to determine whether the programme meets the
accreditation criteria. Course managers are informed of the outcome
within 8 weeks and are given detailed comments about the course.
Accreditation is for one year in the first instance; if
re-accreditation is sought at the end of the year, then course
managers will be required to submit an annual report and a small
fee for re-accreditation.
Current accredited
courses