IBMS Guidance on Returning to Practice
The Health Professions Council have published a guidance document Returning to Practice for health professionals who have taken a break from practicing , and who wish to start practicing again.
Some of the main points emerging from the HPC document are:
1. The individual has personal responsibility for deciding what their specific needs are and how they are addressed within their own scope of practice. They decide if they met the HPC standards of proficiency, i.e. fitness to practice. In this context it is worth noting that the supervisor (of any supervised training) must be on the relevant part of the register but does not need to confirm fitness to practice, but simply countersigns to confirm the period of supervision.
2. The HPC guidance contains clear descriptions regarding updating activities: supervised practice, formal study or private study.
3. The 30 or 60 day period forupdating knowledge and skills can be through any combination of supervised practice, formal study or private study (the latter to a maximum of half the period).
Although the Institute is not involved in the assessment of the individual returning to practice, the Institute recommends the following guidance to assist with structuring the updating period. This should be used in conjunction with the HPC guidance document.
The Institute recommends that:
1. Individuals wishing to return to practice in a clinical laboratory should use the Institute portfolios as a framework for updating their knowledge and skills, for example, the Specialist Portfolio in discipline specific areas.
2. A self-assessment of knowledge and skills achieved prior to a break in practice should be conducted against the portfolio to identify training needs (Gap Analysis)
3. Training should be carried out in an Institute approved training laboratory and in accordance with IBMS Good Professional Practice guidelines.
4. The period of updating should be signed off by a registered biomedical scientist as a record of areas of the specialist portfolio completed and whether competence to practice was achieved.
5. The individual completing the period of updating should complete an IBMS reflective practice statement to confirm how they consider the period of updating to be successful.
Dec 2010