Jocelyn Pryce, Head of Registration and Training at the IBMS, looks at the number of verifiers and examiners who are active.
The first of our new style training days for registration portfolio verifiers and specialist portfolio examiners took place recently and, despite the harsh weather, was very well attended.
We have revised the programme for the days and asked that delegates came prepared so that we could spend the time sharing examples of best practice in workshops. Feedback was positive, suggesting that the day was useful and our new (and experienced) verifiers and examiners left feeling confident.
After describing both processes (verification and examination) we introduced our guest speakers, Mike Carter, Scientific Education and Training Manager, Public Health England, and Christine Whiteside, Training Lead at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast. They coordinate two successful, but very different training programme models and were able to give delegates some examples of the types of evidence their trainees produce. It was clear that trainees on both training programmes produce a variety of strong evidence that is innovative and indicative of their learning experience. Delegates found these approaches informative and inspirational and some have already made changes to their own programmes. We then looked at examples of evidence and discussed them at length, answering questions and suggesting new approaches.
The day was so successful that a very large majority of the delegates have requested to join our pool of verifiers and examiners. This of course is the good news, but the bad news is that we found, on review of our overall numbers of verifiers and examiners, that many of those whose names are listed on our database are dormant. If we consider the activity of examiners by geographical region, we have seen that in some areas the activity by percentage of total examiners is as low as 26%, with the highest number of active examiners being 55% in the East Midlands. In addition to analysing these figures from a geographical perspective, we are also looking at them from a discipline perspective and trying to build pools of active examiners in disciplines where we currently only have a few, virology, for example. This will mean that those few will have to travel less than they currently do and response times will be faster.
There are many factors to take into account when evaluating the figures and this will form part of a much larger project allied to our strategic plan going forward.
How can you help?
If you are an active verifier or examiner then we would like to thank you for your continued support. If you have been dormant but want to continue being alerted to verifications and examinations, then please make sure that the contact details we hold for you are correct and we look forward to you volunteering. If you have been dormant and no longer wish to be considered, please inform the Education Team and we will remove your name from our pool as part of the wider project. Visit: ibms.org/contact-us