Highlights from Royal College Council (Feb. 2019)
We’re pleased to share with you highlights from the February 21-22, 2019, Council meeting.
Change in Council leadership
At the February meeting, M. Ian Bowmer, MDCM, FRCPC, FRCP, FCAHS, was ushered in as President of the Royal College. Françoise Chagnon, MDCM, FRCSC, FACS, was installed as Immediate Past-President. Council has been enriched by the participation of both of these distinguished specialists. The Royal College looks forward to working with them in their new roles.
Reflecting the changing scope of practice of health professionals
Since 2013, the Royal College has captured the roles, activities and services of health professionals in a scope of practice statement entitled, Ensuring safe, high quality care: managing evolving scopes of practice of all health professionals.
As it is important to ensure the Royal College’s position reflects the evolving roles of health professionals, Council was satisfied to approve a revised Royal College position statement that includes expanded attention to the interests of the public and patients.
Task Force on Research – final report
The Royal College Council Task Force on Research, struck two years ago, presented its final report to Council. The task force was chaired by Brian Hodges, MD, PhD, FRCPC, and involved the efforts of over 30 Fellows. The group took a comprehensive reading of the Royal College’s research activities and provided a number of recommendations as to how the Royal College can position itself going forward. Council accepted the final task force report at its meeting. It is now looking to Royal College management to translate the report into business and implementation plans, for further consideration.
Competence by Design – program evaluation
Elaine Van Melle, PhD, MEd, MHSc, provided Council with an overview of the role of program evaluation in relation to Competence by Design (CBD) implementation.
She explained that
- program evaluation is about managing change over time; and
- the application of program evaluation will assist the Royal College, faculties of medicine and individual residency training programs in steering towards the long-term CBD implementation goal of enhanced patient care outcomes.
Council was pleased to be briefed on CBD program evaluation efforts. They advised Dr. Van Melle and the CBD Leadership Team that distilling the ethos of CBD into practical terms of what it means for clinicians, faculty and learners, will be critical to CBD’s success.
Routes to certification
Council agreed to phase out the Jurisdiction Approved Route to Royal College Certification by the end of 2022. The Jurisdiction Approved Route provides an avenue for specialists trained abroad, in any one of 29 colleges, to have a route to examination eligibility and certification. The Jurisdiction Approved Route is no longer viewed as a reliable or valid route to Royal College certification. Leading up to 2022, the Royal College will work with medical regulatory authorities and other stakeholders to develop the Practice Eligibility Route to ensure a more satisfactory certification route is in place for specialists trained abroad.
Oversight of Royal College fiscal matters
- At the Annual Meeting of the Members, an annual membership fee of $960 for the year running April 1, 2019, to March 31, 2020, was approved.
- Council approved the annual operating, capital and employee retirement plan budgets.
The next Royal College Council meeting will take place June 20-21, 2019, in Ottawa. Questions relating to Council activities can be directed to governance@royalcollege.ca
