Are You Fit to Practice?

The International Academy of Clinical Research (IAoCR) welcomes the news today from the Nursing and Midwifery Council that it is introducing three-yearly checks for nurses and midwifes from the end of 2015 to ensure they are fit to practice.

This move by the Nursing and Midwifery Council further supports last year’s introduction of five-yearly checks for doctors and shows that the medical industry in the UK is finally appreciating the importance of regular monitoring of staff.

The IAoCR has been campaigning for a number of years to bring in competency checks for all staff operating within clinical research and welcomes this move by the wider medical industry to repeatedly check the outputs from both training and on-the-job experience.

Asking patients, colleagues and employers for feedback on performance is an ideal way of checking that someone is doing their job well and goes beyond the usual ‘tick list’ mentality that has been operating in the medical industry for far too many years. It enables employers to measure competence with real evidence, using objective assessment.

As Martin Robinson, Principal Director at the IAoCR says: “Just because someone has been doing a job for a number of years, it doesn’t mean that they do it right or well. These regular checks will enable employers to monitor and improve the quality of their staff and this in turn will help to keep patients safe and increase public confidence.”

These areas: Improving quality of care, keeping patients safe and increasing public confidence are three core objectives of the IAoCR’s drive to introduce measures of competency in all training undertaken by the clinical research industry. It is by improving these that staff will also benefit from increased recognition and protection and employers will be able to cut time and costs in bringing drugs to market.

Martin Robinson adds: “It is a great pity that it has taken a scandal such as that at Stafford Hospital to help drive these changes through at the NMC. I can only hope that the clinical research sector sees the benefits of introducing such measures before a crisis occurs and before questions are asked about why these measures were not in place!”

For more information on the IAoCR, please visit www.IAoCR.com