Features: Revalidation - your questions answered
Revalidation - your questions answered.
27 July 2009
A comprehensive set of FAQs for doctors on how revalidation is now available from the GMC.
Covering a wide range of issues, the FAQs look at how revalidation will work for doctors in different types of medical practice, and other important issues such as the role of the Responsible Officer, the timetable for implementing revalidation, and the information that doctors will have to collect as part of the process.
Developed in partnership with a wide range of organisations – including the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and several of the Medical Royal Colleges – the full FAQs are available on the GMC website. Here GMCtoday chooses some key questions.
Will I have to pass an examination in order to revalidate?
For practising doctors, this is very unlikely. That is because revalidation is about what doctors do in their actual practice. In most cases, an examination would not tell us about this. Some specialties are proposing to use online open-book knowledge assessments as part of CPD and this would contribute to the evidence for revalidation, but no one is proposing a formal examination for practising doctors. Instead, revalidation will be based upon annual appraisal in the workplace. It will require you to show, within the context of your practice, that you are meeting the generic standards of practice set by the GMC and, in the case of doctors on the GP register or specialist register, the particular standards described by the relevant college for their specialty.
If you have no medical practice of any kind (either clinical or non-clinical), and still wish to maintain a licence, an objective evaluation such as an examination incorporating a knowledge and skills test may be the only practical way for you to demonstrate your continuing capability for practice. However, if you are not involved in any form of medical practice there is no need for you to retain a licence to practise. If you don’t have a licence you will not need to revalidate.
Will my employer/healthcare provider’s existing appraisal process satisfy the requirements for revalidation?
Your annual appraisal will be the main way in which you will demonstrate that you are meeting the standards required for revalidation. We know, however, that the quality of appraisal in different parts of the UK is, at present, patchy and not adequate for revalidation purposes. In many cases, employer appraisal systems will need to work more effectively. Work on this is under way. We will not start revalidating doctors until we are confident that appropriate systems are in place.
The GMC has developed a framework for appraisal and assessment which will support the delivery of revalidation. The framework sets out generic standards of practice which all doctors will need to meet. The Medical Royal Colleges are translating these into specialty-specific standards and describing the sort of information that doctors working in the different specialties will need to provide for their revalidation. This framework is now being incorporated into enhanced systems of appraisal so that when you come to revalidate you will be able to use your appraisal to demonstrate that you are meeting the required standards.
I keep hearing about multi-source feedback from patients and colleagues being part of the requirements for revalidation. Will the GMC organise this for me?
Multi-source feedback from patients (where relevant, as some doctors do not have patients) and colleagues will be one element of revalidation. The GMC will not organise this for you. It will need to be organised through your workplace.
The GMC is developing some generic questionnaires to capture patient and colleague feedback. These questionnaires are currently undergoing extensive research to confirm their validity and reliability across a range of settings.
If successful, our intention is to make these questionnaires available to anyone who wishes to make use of them.
It will not be mandatory to use the GMC questionnaires. Other questionnaires will be acceptable provided that they satisfy principles and criteria set by the GMC that demonstrate they are robust, valid and reliable for the purpose of revalidation. Later this year we will be consulting on the principles and criteria that will need to be met.
The frequently asked questions on revalidation can be found on our website at
www.gmc-uk.org/revalidation.