Supporting you every step of the way
The GOC has just issued a consultation on its draft standards of practice for optometrists and dispensing opticians, and its draft standards for optical students.
Author: Jo Mullin
Date: 16 March 2015
The GOC has just issued a consultation on its draft standards of practice for optometrists and dispensing opticians, and its draft standards for optical students. The College will be submitting its thoughts and is encouraging you all to send in your individual comments too.
Understanding what your regulator expects of you is important - of course. You don’t want to get into any trouble! But is that enough?
As I hope you will know, we have recently updated our own guidance, the Guidance for professional practice to make the language clear and direct, and the website fast and easy to search. Initial feedback has been very positive indeed and we are very pleased you are finding it so useful.
We really want to do all we can to support you in providing a high quality service that ensures that you get the best possible advice that relates to you in practice, and that your patients receive the best possible care.
So where does the College’s new guidance sit in relation to the GOC’s proposed standards? Well, we worked closely with the GOC when revising our guidance to ensure that it was in line with their emerging standards. Our guidance is much more detailed than the GOC standards, and is here to support you in using your professional judgement; helping you to decide what to do to ensure you meet the GOC standards in a wide range of situations.
As a College member, you will have a print version of our guidance, which is clearly set out and contains an index, which makes it easy for you to find exactly what you need. And, very soon, you will also be able to download an app to use in the consulting room to find the information you need quickly, even when without internet access.
To encourage our members to think about how our guidance applies in day-to-day situations, we produce ethical scenarios, with a commentary by one of our clinical advisers, and peer discussion case studies, either in print or on film. These are all designed to get members thinking about how they can really use the guidance in everyday practice, rather than looking at it getting dusty on a shelf. We have also been tweeting a series of clinical conundrums to help you find your way round the new style guidance. Again, we have had really positive feedback about all of this.
We really want to do all we can to support you in providing a high quality service that ensures that you get the best possible advice that relates to you in practice, and that your patients receive the best possible care. If you haven’t already, please do try out the materials we offer and let us know what you think. We’re working hard to provide you with all the professional development materials that you can use easily, without having to pay for expensive courses. We would love to hear what you’re finding useful and what else the College can provide to help you. Use the comments box below to tell us your thoughts.
Jo Mullin
Director of Policy and Strategy
We are working towards a system where optometrists are equal partners in the eye health care of the nation.
The Policy and Strategy team works with stakeholders to influence policy and decision makers in health care delivery in the UK by showing how optometrists can improve the quality of eye care and contribute to the health service. We develop policy and provide materials that translate that policy into action.
We also support our individual members in delivering professional excellence in eye health in their day-to-day practice. We develop guidance and clinical management guidelines, offer clinical advice to members, other professionals and the public, and provide clinical input into College work, such as events programmes, CPD materials and patients resources.