Mr Kevin Cassar, Dr Tonio Piscopo
Malta Foundation Programme Directors

The Malta Foundation School enrolled its first group of doctors into its newly established foundation programme last July. This programme covers the first two years of clinical practice for newly graduated doctors and is the equivalent of the ‘housemanship’ period. The big difference is that doctors entering this programme will be provided with one-to-one educational supervision throughout the two years, a structured training programme, regular assessment using different tools and various assessors as well as a certificate of successful completion at the end of the programme. This certificate will enable these doctors to apply for basic specialist training programmes both in Malta and in the UK. The completion certificate is recognized in the UK as the same as to a certificate awarded by UK foundation schools, since the Malta Foundation school has been accorded affiliate status by the UK foundation programme office.

One important aspect of the foundation programme is that doctors need to achieve and demonstrate achievement of core competences which are laid down in the foundation programme curriculum, a document produced by the Academy of Royal Colleges and the various departments of Health of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. This curriculum is revised every 3 years and sets down not only the areas of knowledge that the trainees need to cover but also the skills and attitudes that they need to develop. In an effort to help our doctors cover these areas we have teamed up with TheSynapse to develop e-learning modules. The aim is to deliver learning solutions to the next generation of healthcare professionals using innovative learning technologies. These online modules will cover key areas of the curriculum and give the trainees the opportunity of learning anytime and anywhere but also to perform self-assessment. The first module being launched and which is written by Principal Pharmacist Mark Zammit covers the area of safe prescribing. Needless to say this is an essential skill that any doctor needs to master and it is also clear that although this module covers an important part of the foundation programme curriculum, this is of interest to doctors in any practice.

The e-modules that are planned and which will be rolled out gradually will deal with areas that are of interest to the majority of medical practitioners across all specialties. While these modules will provide foundation doctors with an important educational resource to help them cover the curriculum, there is little doubt that these will be of benefit to all practitioners. We are grateful to the TheSynapse team for their support in developing these modules and augur that these modules will serve to improve the standards of medical care in Malta.

Further information may be found on www.fpdoctors.info.