Technical Consultant Competency

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Hello All! I am new to my role as a Technical Consultant in the POC setting. As I am reading and gaining new knowledge as to the requirements of my position and the responsibilities I now have I am questioning if competency is necessary for myself for the testing I am training others on in order to perform patient testing. Good laboratory practice would have performing and tracking competency for myself. Training records seem necessary because although I have 10+ years of laboratory bench work in a clinical setting the instrumentation used in POC is different. However, when reviewing the 6 methods used to assess competency I would immediately fail 1) Direct observation of patient testing and 2) Monitoring result reporting. I no longer perform patient testing and therefore am no longer entering patient results. Where does the POC community stand on competency for POC partners?

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Hi Michael~ I think this is a great question!  From my understanding, you would not be required to be competency assessed to be a technical consultant.  You would need to be assessed IF you performed patient testing.  That is my understanding; however, I would love to see what others have to say as well. 

Agree with above, full competency on test is only required if you are performing patient testing/reporting patient results.  One of the reasons the education requirements for TC's are higher than testing personnel is to ensure you have a sufficient background to train and assess staff performing a variety of lab tests.  

It has been my experience that Competency testing for a Technical
Consultant is not required. We are now TJC inspected and the inspector
asked me for my Diploma but she indicated that is not required for me to be
observed/tested in the usual manner like an operator. I don't report
patient results as the POCC; the inspector said that I am deemed competent
by the Letter of Delegation from the Medical Director. We were TJC
inspected three weeks ago and it held true.

I concur; there is no requirement that a TC must pass individual competency assessment for each test they are not performing, yet they are the assessors of the operators who do perform the test(s). That said, the TC must be assessed for 'the role of assessing', and must have the knowledge needed to successfully carry out the assessments.
Wishing you luck in this new role, Michael!

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Michael Bishop
26 days ago
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