Standard operating procedures (SOPs) for POCT have been developed and are reinforced through POCT training and competency assessment processes, and compliance with SOPs is monitored during site visits.
Nearly all training programmes follow the IFEM recommendations of starting with an introductory course, followed by completing a hands-on proctored scan list on real patients and finally a competency assessment to complete the credentialing process [7].
The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) has mandated that all residency programs implement an assessment process of 6 core competencies.
Wherever caregiver training is provided, more consideration needs to be given to processes of skills training and competency assessment which are not simple matters of demonstration and repetition.
Polypectomy competency assessment should arguably be a part of the certification process for all endoscopists.
While employee skill, competency, and behavior gaps are typically identified during the performance assessment process (or a 360 feedback process), learning delivery is the mechanism to close the gaps.
The participation in the assessment process provides students with an awareness of their grade of competency acquisition, thereby allowing them to be an assessment agent of their own learning process from different perspectives or dimensions.
Three quarters (78%) also agreed that the assessment process helped to identify weaknesses and gaps in their competencies (Table 1).
In addition, whilst the organisations interviewed did recognise the importance of cultural competency assessment, particularly related to indigenous Australians, many were only just incorporating, or anticipating incorporating, this area into the assessment processes the organisation used.
In addition to the hierarchy of the assessment process, it is important to consider the three domains of learning competencies being measured: knowledge (cognitive), skills (psychomotor) and attitudes (affective).
As such, professionalism is viewed as one of the five core competencies as defined by ACGME, and is expected to be part of a structured curriculum and assessment process in both undergraduate and post-graduate medical education.
