Checklist for approving courses and centres: Course Accreditation Process
The ALSGBI strongly supports high quality surgical training. Indeed its main purpose on inception was to introduce safe laparoscopic surgery into the UK when interventional laparoscopic surgery was new and it has maintained a very strong ethos of laparoscopic surgical operative training ever since.
As laparoscopic procedures have become firmly embedded in the surgeon's armamentarium the methods of teaching and learning them continue to evolve and new courses are constantly being developed to meet ever changing needs.
Members of the ALSGBI are at the forefront of many of these changes and the Association believes it can provide a central role in disseminating course availability to a wide audience and maintain a database of feedback to help trainees determine the courses which best suit their needs.
We have therefore developed a process of Course Accreditation which is designed to help advertise courses being run whilst simultaneously providing external quality assurance of these courses and allowing potential applicants to review the feedback from previous delegates.
Any course in laparoscopic surgery may apply to be endorsed by the ALSGBI without fee. Where successful this course will be able to be advertised on the ALSGBI website and may be listed in the newsletter but documentation will be required before endorsement and after course completion and trainee feedback will, in abridged form, be accessible to future delegates on the ALSGBI website.
The process for approval is as follows:
Application is made using the form below and the executive officers will refer the application to the relevant Council member who will advise whether it should be endorsed based on knowledge of the unit and faculty. He/she will report to Council those courses which have not been approved and refer to a colleague those where there is a clear conflict of interest. Approval will be specific for a course rather than for a unit and will provisionally be for a three year period subject to satisfactory feedback. In rare circumstances the ALSGBI reserves the right to withdraw endorsement without explanation.