The College has just completed the revision of seven new specialty curricula: Histopathology, Forensic Histopathology, Paediatric and Perinatal Pathology, Diagnostic Neuropathology and Chemical Pathology and, with the Joint Royal Colleges of Physicians Training Board (JRCPTB), Medical Microbiology, Medical Virology (alongside the JRCPTB Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine curricula as part of the Combined Infection Training arrangements).
The revised curricula were developed in response to the General Medical Council’s (GMC) Standards for Postgraduate Curricula (Excellence by Design). The changes to the design of the postgraduate medical curricula help make training more flexible for doctors, and more responsive to patient and health service needs.
All the curricula had to go through a stringent two-stage GMC approval process to demonstrate that our new curricula met their new standards, Excellence by Design, incorporated Generic Professional Capabilities and the Shape of Training principles. The new curricula were approved in Spring. They are assessed by High Level Outcomes, which are included in the form of Capabilities in Practice (CiPs). CiPs describe the professional tasks or work within the scope of postgraduate pathology training. These are evaluated by trained, expert assessors who use their professional judgement about professional performance.
To support the Training Programme Directors and Educational Supervisors and Trainers, we held three online Curriculum Launch Events. The events aimed to give a better understanding of the incoming curricular changes and how these would affect trainers on a practical level. There was a Q&A at the end of each session which garnered lots of questions. We also held an induction to the new curricula for trainees at the New Trainee Welcome Day in August.
In the next couple of months we will be working on transitional arrangements for the current trainees to move onto the new curricula.
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