2021 Curriculum - philosophy

Our philosophy

The requirement to produce a new curriculum for anaesthetics has given us an opportunity to create a more learning-centred approach to the development of anaesthetists in training. Partly, this means we can build upon holistic approaches to assessment that already exist but haven't yet been formally incorporated into the learning journey. It also means that we can reframe what we consider to be best practice and how we can create a framework that enables learners to be more active participants in their own development.

Our philosophy has been outlined in the article Defining Standards published on pages 48 and 49 of the January 2021 issue of the Bulletin.

Further reading:

• Carr W (1995) For Education: Towards Critical Educational Enquiry, Buckingham, Open University Press
• Fish D & Coles C (1998) Developing Professional Judgement in Healthcare, Learning through Critical Appreciation of Practice, Oxford, Butterworth-Heinemann
• Fish D & Coles C (2005) Developing a Curriculum for Practice, Buckingham, Open University Press
• Fish D & de Cossart L (2007) Developing the Wise Doctor. A resource for Trainers and Trainees on MMC, London, The Royal Society of Medicine Press.

Listen to our podcast about the philosophy of the curriculum here

Generic Professional Capabilities

The GMC has described a series of skills, attributes and behaviours that must be embodied by any autonomous clinical practitioner - Generic Professional Capabilities (GPCs) were published in 2017. A copy of this document can be downloaded from the links below.

The intention from the outset is that these are common and interchangeable across curricula as far as possible. They were described in response to the finding that curricula across colleges vary significantly, and not all college curricula covered the breadth of the domains of Good Medical Practice.

The GMC also wanted to learn the lessons from high profile reports outlining safety failures and the contribution of shortcomings in the care provided by medical leaders. The GMC has stated that these are to be the building blocks for all curricula and that we must include these as we build content and use them to guide our systems of assessment.

Although not defined as 'Generic Professional Capabilities', the current 2010 Anaesthetic CCT Curriculum already includes many such ‘common competences’. Annex A describes specific professionalism and common competences that are expected throughout training. They are also embedded in the clinical units of training at all levels, and are expected to be included within the assessments of clinical training.  Annex G covers further elements described in the nine GMC domains above.

If you would like to contact us, you can email the Anaesthetics Curriculum and Equivalence Team on training@rcoa.ac.uk or call on 020 7092 1550.

Please let us know what you think. If you feel the information on this page could be improved, please get in touch with us.

Last reviewed: 31 December 2022
Next review due: 1 January 2024