Media release

28 Nov 2013

Today the Board approved and published a revised accreditation standard for post-graduate ocular therapeutics.

Post-graduate ocular therapeutics accreditation standard

The Optometry Board of Australia has considered the revised Post-graduate ocular therapeutics accreditation standard developed by the Optometry Council of Australia and New Zealand (OCANZ) at its September and November meetings this year. The Board has approved the standard, noting the Procedures for the development of accreditation standards (published on the AHPRA website).

During the consultative stage the draft standard was sent to over 50 stakeholders who were invited to provide feedback as well as being published on the OCANZ website. Submissions were analysed, and in summary:

• sought clarification of terms used in the document (both suggestions of substitutions for words used or open ended questions)
• suggested inclusion of references to other parallel system requirements (such as TEQSA requirements or the National Prescribing Service Ltd (NPS) competencies), and
• proposed enhancement of content with reference to specific methodologies (for example, benchmarking in place of comparison).

Proposed stakeholder amendments were incorporated into the proposed standard which OCANZ submitted to the Board with explanatory material.

The standard is now published on the Optometry Board website and takes effect from 28 November 2013.

Download a PDF of this Media release - Post-graduate ocular therapeutics accreditation standard - 28 November 2013 (40.4 KB,PDF), Word version (364 KB,DOCX)