No sooner than finishing medical school, british Graduates will begin to be introduced to the subject to revalidation, in a process due to start in December 2012.
It will apply to fully registered foundation year 2 doctors, and all speciality trainees. The trainees will officially have to report to different representatives of the General Medical Council (GMC) depending on where they live. For example in England, this will be the postgraduate dean.
This process may be confusing already confused junior doctors! This from an ST doctor from the West Midlands:
“We are already operating in a highly structured system of mandatory training, appraisal and work place based assessments. I’m not really sure how this revalidation applies to us, it seems to be an assessment of what we are doing already.”
Early indications from the GMC suggests that this opinion may largely reflect the truth for doctors in training. It seems the responsible officers will review evidence already collated at the annual review most doctors have (ARCP or RITA), but can also take into account other information ‘from employers’. As an ARCP or RITA can already do this, we don’t anticipate the system will produce dramatic changes for trainees.
So, the process of certifying doctors are at an appropriate standard continues. We feel this area may be particularly important for undergraduates being called to any interview process in the coming months, due to it being a topical issue. Further information can be found from the GMC here.