The Curriculum on a Page (COAP tool)
Dr Mark O'Brien, ST7 resident has designed a valuable tool for all residents in Anaesthesia to support completion of the RCoA curriculum requirements.
The Curriculum on a Page (COAP) is a new spreadsheet based tool which is available to any resident who wishes to streamline and organise their approach to the daunting LLP. A short introductory video highlighting the benefits and need for such a tool is included here. The tool is not a mandatory requirement but we are signposting all residents who would like to give it a try.
The tool would be particularly useful to take to ES appraisal meetings as it is an easy way to review progress.
What is it?
The COAP is a spreadsheet-based tool aimed at anaesthetic residents to improve the efficiency with which the RCoA 2021 curriculum domains can be evidenced throughout training. It has two main roles:
1. It provides an interactive overview of the entire curriculum.
2. It allows for easy cross-referencing of ‘evidence required’ vs ‘evidence obtained’. This should enable a more targeted approach to the generation of Supervised Learning Events (SLEs) as well as helping to inform list requests and the booking of educational courses.
In short, it allows residents to take a strategic approach to evidence acquisition for ARCP which is currently not easily achievable via the Lifelong Learning Platform (LLP).
A few important points on using the COAP
1. The use of this tool is entirely optional and is no way a requirement for ARCP.
2. The COAP is designed to be used throughout the year as a means of tracking progress through the various curriculum domains and identifying ongoing evidence requirements. A ‘little and often’ approach to its use will yield the most benefit. It is a tool designed to reduce the overall administrative workload of ARCP preparation, not add to it.
3. The COAP is not an official sign-off document. Judgement regarding sufficient levels of evidence for HALO domains still ultimately lies with the panel at ARCP. The COAP can be thought of as a tool to prepare your homework for marking, rather than a tool to mark your own homework.
The COAP spreadsheet is available to download below
An Introduction to the COAP tool video can be watched below
Any feedback would be very welcome to support the further development of this tool (Mark.O'Brien2@wales.nhs.uk)
