Following the publication in 2025 of the first profession-specific professional development framework (PDF) for orthoptists, BIOS have undertaken an initial pilot evaluation of the framework with a small pre-registration orthoptic group as a precursor to a more substantial profession-wide evaluation of the resource.
This group (n=11) represented 41% of a final-year cohort of learners and it was undertaken as part of one of their undergraduate modules. Students utilised the BIOS PDF to guide their reflections on their professional development now and how they plan to progress in their early careers as orthoptists. Feedback was collected through a voluntary Microsoft Forms survey combining Likert-scale and free-text responses. The key overarching areas of focus in the evaluation were the PDF’s ease of use, perceived relevance and value, and overall satisfaction
Overall satisfaction was high (82%), with 82% of respondents also indicating that they would recommend using the framework. Most students reported that the framework was relevant and valuable for supporting learning and professional development and identified that the self-evaluation component helped them recognise areas for future development.
