The National Commission on Orthotic and Prosthetic Education (NCOPE) announced that its board of directors has approved amendments to the residency standards. The proposed changes to the standards were made available for public comment last fall and the responses had a high percentage of agreement from the constituents that elected to provide input. The principle changes include more explicit language defining the supervision of resident practitioners modeled after the American Board for Certification in Orthotics, Prosthetics and Pedorthics’ Scope of Practice. Additionally, residency programs will be required to use the Orthotic and Prosthetic Residency Centralized Application Service (OPRESCAS), a tool that enables prospective residents and residency programs to connect and facilitate the placement of residents. The new standards will take effect July 1.
The NCOPE board’s decision to amend the standards was based upon the following rationale:
- Given the technology advancements and evolving care delivery models, there was a need to further define direct and indirect supervision during residency. In addition, the amendments pertaining to supervision use a common language and definitions already being utilized within the profession.
- The implementation of a centralized application service for the placement of residents aims to create a single point of entry that provides prospective residents access to pertinent information about many residency programs and the ability to easily apply, while minimizing the need to submit multiple applications to attain a placement; provide residency programs with a customizable and functional cloud-based system that will enable sites access to the largest possible pool of potential residents at no cost to the site; and provide NCOPE access to demographic and placement information needed to continue to improve the residency processes.
For more information on the additions to the standards and the transition for current programs, contact Dominique Mungo at [email protected].
