News & Views

All Royal Colleges and Faculties have been requested to rewrite their specialist curriculum by the GMC to include the Generic Professional Capabilities (GPC) Framework and meet the GMC standards of curricular design. This represents a move from multiple learning outcomes, used to describe each constituent part of a capability, to overarching learning outcomes that describe the capability itself. The Curriculum Sub-committee believes that the proposed new OST Curriculum will accelerate progression to consultant posts and ensure national standardisation of high level special interest area training.

The GMC have agreed changes to curriculum requirements at ARCP to enable progression where disruption to training has been unavoidable, and where it is safe for patients and supports trainee well-being. Trainees and trainers are invited to join a webinar on Thursday, 29 April 2021 to learn more about the temporary curriculum derogations and how portfolio evidence should be assessed for 2021 ARCPs. Participants will be able to take part in a Q&A session.

In this episode, we speak with Abison Logeswaran, a Tool Digital Fellow and Registrar at Moorfields Eye Hospital and George Saleh, a Consultant Ophthalmologist and the Director of Simulation Training at Moorfields Eye Hospital. We discuss technology, specifically immersive technologies including augmented and virtual reality and how these will shape the future of surgical training in our specialty.

In this episode, we speak with Mr Soupramanien Sandramouli, a consultant ophthalmologist in Wolverhampton and the previous CESR lead for the RCOphth. Mr Sandramouli shares his experiences and advice on how to succeed when preparing a CESR application and the common mistakes to be avoided.

In this episode we speak with David Lockington, one of the newly appointed simulation leads at the college and Jennifer Hind, the trainee simulation lead for the West of Scotland. We speak about their experiences of setting up their own simulation lab in Glasgow, their perceptions on the importance of simulation training and what the future might hold in the world of simulated ocular surgery.

In this episode, we speak with Sarah Maling, the lead for specialty recruitment. She provides an overview of what has changed for recruitment this year due to the pandemic and also answers questions that were submitted in advance of this podcast episode.

In this episode we speak with Kavita Aggarwal, an Ophthalmology Trainee from Oxford. She talks about wellbeing, how to stay healthy during the latest lockdown and provides some top tips on how to avoid burnout.

The Royal College of Ophthalmologists is pleased to announce a series of Ophthalmic Practitioner Training webinars. These webinars are suitable for Ophthalmologists, Orthoptists, Optometrists and Ophthalmic Nurses who are keen to undertake or support the OPT programme in their unit.

The new guidance document ‘Mitigating the effects of COVID-19 on Ophthalmologists in Training’ provides recommendations for both trainers and ophthalmologists in training to lessen the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the training programme.

The Royal College of Ophthalmologists recognises that reduced access to cataract surgical training opportunities, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, is impacting on the surgical experience of our ophthalmologists in training.