The potential for using entrustable professional activities in assessing optometric clinical competence

Qualifications required to practise optometry seek to provide assurance that those completing them have the necessary competencies to be safe and effective clinicians. Often, this assurance is gained via high stakes assessments such as objective structured clinical examinations. This paper introduces entrustable professional activities ( EPAs ) as a potential alternative approach to assessing optometric clinical competence. Entrustable professional activities are defined in the context of optometric practice and the potential advantages and challenges of using them are outlined.