Training and recognition of clinical embryologists as professionals—now, but what does the future hold?
Year: 2023
Type: editorial
Abstract: Training and recognition of clinical embryologists as professionals-now, but what does the future hold?I read with great interest the manuscript by Shapiro et al. (1) entitled ''Education of the clinical embryology laboratory professional: development of a novel program delivered in a laboratory medicine department.''The investigators describe a 2-year master's program over 6 academic terms that they established recently at the University of Toronto in the Department of Clinical Medicine in collaboration with the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.The curriculum for this program was developed with guidance from the Ontario Council of Academic Vice-Presidents that recognizes 5 categories of educational and academic quality: depth and breadth of knowledge; research and scholarship; application of knowledge; professional capacity; and communication skills.The program comprises several courses relevant to assisted reproduction and provides hands-on embryology training in a simulation laboratory, a mentored research project, and a brief apprenticeship of on-site learning in a human in vitro fertilization (IVF) laboratory.Despite the tremendous advances in assisted reproductive technology since the birth of the first IVF baby in 1978 (2), advances in methods for training an individual to become a skilled clinical embryologist have notably lagged.The traditional paradigm was through an apprenticeship, as performed by Sir Robert Edwards when training Jean Purdy, a certified nurse who became the essential third member of this first clinical IVF team (3).Now, 45 years later, the great majority of clinical embryology training still follows a similar paradigm.Indeed, there is much to be said for this.One-on-one hands-on training offers the opportunity for shared practical and theoretical learning between the trainer and the trainee.However, in a modern, fast-paced IVF laboratory, such a training method frequently exerts pressure on the trained team members which, in turn, might lead to an increased risk of errorsomething none of us can afford.This pressure, and the need for an increasing number of formal training programs, will become more and more a reality as the gap continues to widen between the number of vacant clinical embryology positions and the number of qualified individuals available to fill them.Although the manuscript is somewhat lengthy and repetitive in places (I guide the readers to Table 1 for course content and to Figure 1 for the framework for enhancing embryologist training), the investigators are to be commended for addressing this training need by establishing their new master's program, which provides participants in-depth theoretical teaching, along with some practical training.I further congratulate the team for rightfully recognizing clinical embryology as a clinical laboratory science and for appropriately highlighting the clinical
Source: F&S Reports
Author: Catherine Racowsky
Institution: Hôpital Foch
Language: English
Subfield: Economics and Econometrics
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,000
OpenAlex ID: W4380987168