European Professional Competence Profile

We are pleased to present to you the European Professional Competence Profile . This profile reflects the European level of orthoptic practice envisaged by OCE. We hope that this competence profile will contribute to the harmonization of orthoptic practice in Europe. We encourage the different professional associations to consider this profile as the gold standard and thus let it be the basis for your national professional orthoptic profile. This competence profile has been prepared as the basis for the European Diploma for orthoptists. It was created as part of an Erasmus+ funded project called EDORTH (Acronym for European Diploma for ORTHoptists). This competence profile was validated in 2019 using the Delphi method by orthoptic associations that are members of the OCE (Orthoptistes de la Communauté Européenne / European Orthoptic Association). It is an honour for the OCE Education Committee to share this work. This document was prepared by members of the Education Committee of the Orthoptistes de la Communauté Européenne (OCE) with the aim of defining a commonly agreed description of the professional roles and competences of an orthoptist working in one of the participating countries. Most of these countries have orthoptic programs. They have defined their roles within their national health care system and these roles may of course differ. In order to agree on a common high standard in the training of orthoptists, it is necessary to accept differences, but to improve the quality of orthoptic programs in countries where it does not meet this standard. The description is structured to show the roles in different steps of the orthoptic process. Some roles go beyond this to explain how orthoptists position themselves within the multi-professional healthcare system. The competences are listed and explained in some detail, indicating the expected level of expertise in the relevant area.