Colposcopy remains central to disease ascertainment and treatment for women identified through primary screening with or without triages high risk. Quality assurance (QA) of colposcopy services is fundamental to the quality and performance of any cervical screening programme. QA requires not only monitoring of the service provision but training of colposcopists and colposcopy trainers themselves. This requires a recognised training programme with transparency of the assessment of competency on completion of training and accountability for achieving competency for independent clinical practice as well as a process to ensure that competency continues beyond the time of training.
QA of training and assessment can be managed through evaluation of current medical education literature, peer review and support from specialist societies, colleges or regulatory bodies. Ideally any programme should perform their own internal and external review and validation processes.
The focus will be on the requirements of the trainer and the colposcopy service to provide quality training to allow the trainee to achieve skills and attributes of an independant practitioner. The assessment of competency will look at both educational and practical issues and consider different methods of assessing competency for independent practice.