Australian Doctors’ Fund Blog

Competency Based Training

July 16th, 2009

3 presentations on competency based training.

My understanding of competency based training is as follows:

• The supporters of competency based training believe that if you can do something, you should be allowed to do it.
• Our medical forebears believed that before you are allowed to do anything, you should demonstrate a knowledge of the reasons why it had to be done and the implications for it not being done properly the result as we know was a dramatic decline in death rates.
• Some people want to go back to the bad old days and do it all again. They want to take shortcuts with training. No more electricians, just power switch installers.
• Competency based training has its place where a person has no accountability for what they are doing and are simply performing procedures on a standardised basis under the direction of senior colleagues i.e. they are not independent operators or decision makers.
• In any area where there is a possibility of catastrophe (no matter how small) we must all insist that those who take responsibility for our lives have the highest level of demonstrated understanding (medical degree) and that others who work for them are delegates, not independent operators. Jumbo jet pilots have an in-depth knowledge of aviation even if they don’t use it in the cockpit on every flight.
• In medicine, competency must be built on a high foundation of knowledge. There are no shortcuts.

Stephen Milgate
Executive Director

Attachments:

• Australian Medical Council Competency Based Training Workshop, 21 April 2009, Sydney: sadler_presentation_paper
• Competency-based Assessment in Specialist Training - Dr Peter White: p_white_cba_amc_wshop_april_2009
• CBT And Undergraduate Medical Education: Reductionism Or Globalism David Prideaux: amc-cbt09

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