The latest edition of the T&O SAC newsletter can be found on the JCST website and here.
Key points:
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Plastering: Plastering skills remains an important area of concern for both the SAC and the BOA. New DOPS will be appearing on the ISCP in relation to these skills. ARCP panels and educational supervisors are to look for DOPS and also for evidence of trainees having undertaken formal training in casting.
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CCT guidelines for research: the standard of 2 peer-reviewed publications was reviewed due to issues with trainees paying a fee to publish in open access online journals. Such journals are of low value with questionable peer review processes. To avoid this behavour the SAC had added the alternative option of providing evidence of screening/recruiting 5 patients into an REC approved study.
- Quality indicators for surgical training in T&O have been updated and in particular QI number 4 has been updated to incorporate something that was in the pink book which was the requirement in a timetable for a half day per week for personal study, audit or research.
- Critical condition CBD’s. Ensure you link to the appropriate topics i.e. critical conditions when completing WBAs. Topics can be reviewed by job in which case you see every WBA by topic for that job. Alternatively, and this is particularly relevant at the end of training, you can review the topics by curriculum. Trainees need to be consistent in using either the 2013 or the 2015 curriculum in allocating topics to these assessments. That will reduce the amount of guesswork on the part of ARCP panels and SAC liaison members and ensure that all assessments are seen.
