This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
WCO Global Competency Model under review
CHICAGO – A World Council of Optometry board member presented the group’s Global Competency Model to delegates here at the WCO meeting.
The model was formally adopted in April 2005, according to board member Jeffrey Weaver, OD, executive director of the American Board of Optometry. It was based on four areas: ocular therapeutic services, ocular diagnostic services, visual function services and optical technology services.
In October 2011 the WCO governing board “wanted to look at competencies required for a person to refer to themselves as an optometrist,” Dr. Weaver said. “They also decided that the WCO should adopt broad competencies of dispensing, refracting, prescribing and detection to call oneself an OD.
“In December 2011 the executive committee decided we needed to look at a global competency model and established a working group,” he continued.
“It’s easy to explain the current model by categorizing competence in four buckets, but in fact there’s a continuum of competence,” Dr. Weaver said.
He said that continuum includes attaining book knowledge, performing skills, understanding findings, analyzing findings based on knowledge and evaluating all information to diagnose and treat patients. He said three levels of competence are the minimum level of knowledge to begin clinical training as a student, minimal knowledge to begin practice and competence of an experienced practitioner.
“When we look at this competency model, we may need to change the emphasis from technical aspects to understanding and critical thinking,” Dr. Weaver said. “We can define what we mean by competency in skills and minimal competence for entry into practice, but it’s more complex if we’re trying to assess the ability to make clinical decisions of diagnosis and management of everything we’ve learned.”