VISION MATTERS 
College of Opticians of British Columbia Newsletter
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October 2009
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Updated Continuing Education Program A year ago, the College invited all opticians in BC to an open meeting to discuss possible improvements to the Mandatory Continuing Education (MCE) Program. The meeting was amazing - all opticians that participated had really good ideas that generated positive and interesting discussions on producing better seminars, updating the credit system and the accountability of learning. Since then, the Quality Assurance Committee has reviewed all the great ideas and used some of them to update the MCE Program. Over the course of the next few years, changes to the updated MCE Program will be implemented.
The first batch of changes to be implemented:- Expiration for MCE activities: courses will expire after 2 years to ensure content is still relevant
- Categories of MCE: instead of requiring dispensing opticians to obtain 15 EG credits and contact lens fitters 12 CL credits, the amount of credits required will be divided equally between the 3 major categories of opticianry practice: technology, health and business courses.
- Increased carry-over credits: the limit been increased from 2 EC credits to 1 years worth of credits (7 for dispensing opticians and 12 for contact lens fitters)
- Graduated levels of education workshop: allow education providers to develop beginner, intermediate and advanced levels of learning
- Online testing: allow education providers to test level of learning and encourage opticians to test their learning and earn more credits by following up each MCE activity with an online quiz
- Updated MCE requirements for international/out-of-province non-practicing registrants
- MCE Education Planner: help opticians plan a course of action to complete their MCE requirements by an agreed extended deadline.
The complete updated MCE program can be downloaded off the COBC website at:
www.cobc.ca/How_Are_Credits_Awarded.aspx The College is also working on the issue of creating a resurgence of opticians truly interested in lifelong learning. Once again, the suggestions from opticians at the open meeting last year were innovative
. Examples of these suggestions include:
- Presenting relevant topics of current interest: customer trouble-shooting, branding and marketing, higher calibre of technical courses, low vision and other emerging eye health issues
- Create better presentations: teach presenters how to make their presentations more engaging through improved communication skills and content
- Group learning: arrange meetings between groups of opticians to learn practical skills from each other (eg: sales techniques and how to communicate technical wording to patients)
- Integrated lecture development: encourage industry partners to work with the professional association to develop educational content
The College will forward all the suggestions from opticians to education providers in efforts to help them improve the overall quality of continuing education seminars. The goal is to develop fresh and exciting seminars to ensure opticians are learning, increase expectations for presentations, and increase the pride of opticians in their health professional license.
What You Need and WhenNow that you’ve read about the updated MCE program, you probably want to know how it will apply to you. All the changes will be implemented immediately and the College will take an active role in encouraging the professional providers to develop interesting and useful seminars.
The only change that will require a few years to implement is the updated categories of MCE to concentrate on well-rounded learning from the major categories of opticianry practice. Instead of requiring dispensing opticians to obtain 15 EG credits and contact lens fitters 12 CL credits, the amount of credits required will be divided equally between the 3 major categories of opticianry practice: technology, health and business courses. Therefore if you’re a dispensing optician, you will require 7 technology, 7 health and 7 business credits each MCE cycle and if you’re a contact lens fitter, you will require 12 technology, 12 health and 12 business credits each MCE cycle.
Registrants will upgrade to the new MCE requirements after their next round of MCE credits are due:
- MCE cycle #3: December 31, 2009
- MCE cycle #1: December 31, 2010
- MCE cycle #2: December 31, 2011
By December 31, 2011, all registrants will have upgraded to the new category requirements.
Also in this issue: