Source: General Medical Council
Links: Link to main document
Publication format: PDF
Published: 15th July 2015.
Comes into effect: 1st January 2016
Summary of driver:
The General Medical Council have set out a series of standards expected of organisations responsible for the training and education of medical students and doctors.
The standards replace Tomorrow’s Doctors (2009) and The Trainee Doctor (2011).
Key features of driver:
10 standards for the management and delivery of education and training. The standards are organised into 5 themes.
- Learning, Environment and Culture.
The learning environment should be:
- Safe for patients
- Supportive for learners and educators
- Learning, education and training should be valued and supported by the organisation.
2. Education Governance & Leadership
The standards require that effective education governance, leadership and quality control processes exist for:
- Measuring the performance of education and training.
- Addressing any concerns related to patient safety or the standard of education and training.
- Ensuring the education and training is fair and upholds equality and diversity.
3. Supporting learners
Educational and pastoral support should be provided for learners to enable them to meet the curricula and the standards of good medical practice.
4. Supporting Educators
- Educators should have the knowledge, skills, resources and support to deliver effective education and training.
- They must be appropriately selected and managed according to their responsibilities.
5. Developing and implementing curricula and assessment.
Curricula and assessments (undergraduate and postgraduate) should be developed and implemented so that students and doctors will meet the requirements of their curricula, and the Good Medical Practice standards.
Primary audience: Medical schools, the deaneries and the Learning, Education and Training Boards.
Impact on library policy/practice:
None of the regulations are specifically aimed at libraries.
But theme 1 regulation R1.19 includes requirements for organisations to have the resources and facilities to deliver safe and relevant learning opportunities. The definition of resources and facilities includes IT systems for learners to access the curricula; libraries and knowledge services and physical spaces. The themes 2 and 3 also contain unspecific requirements for the provision of appropriate resources and facilities for the learners and educators to fulfil and deliver their curricula.
Depending on the setup and services offered by a library/ information service, they may be providing one or more of these aspects.
Libraries provide and manage the access to the information resources which support the academic side of training provision. They provide information literacy training sessions on how to use these resources, and also provide study space.
The library’s home organisation and stakeholders should be made aware that the library service is supporting the organisation to meet the General Medical Council’s requirements. Without the library’s resources and facilities the organisation is unlikely to be able to demonstrate that it appropriately supports the education programmes it provides. This would put the library in good stead when it comes to negotiating for funding and resources.
Librarians must consult the trainers and educators within their organisation to identify which resources and facilities they need to offer to be appropriate for the education being delivered.
LETBs are required to have systems and processes for monitoring the quality of teaching, support facilities and learning opportunities. Perhaps the library’s LQAF result could be included in the proof of the quality of its organisations’ education and training.
Date last updated: October 2017
Due for review: October 2018
Group member responsible: FG
Tagged: Education and training, Medical education