Ahpra has announced a change in medical registration requirements, which will affect most practitioners.
As of January 2023 there will be new Continued Professional Development (CPD) requirements for almost all of us.
What does this mean?
Previously working a certain amount of weeks a year was sufficient to meet registration renewal requirements. Now, you will need to meet a minimum of 50 hours of CPD.
New CPD requirements
- Be registered with an accredited “CPD home”
- Write an annual professional development plan
- 50 hours CPD per year relevant to your scope of practice
- 12.5 hours educational activities
- 25 hours – performance review and measuring outcomes
- Remaining 12.5 hours for any of above categories
- Self-evaluate your CPD for that year
- Keep records of your CPD in case of an audit
CPD Homes
- An organisation accredited by the Australian Medical Council (AMC) to provide a CPD program for medical practitioners
- Accredited medical college
- Doctorportal Learning that is now called CPD Home
- More to come, click the link CPD Homes for a complete list
- TOP TIP: you can use any college as a CPD home if you pay membership (e.g. if you’re not in a training program but pay RACGP membership you can use RACGP as a CPD home)
Who is exempt
- medical students
- interns in accredited intern training programs and doctors in postgraduate year 2 positions who are participating in a structured program that leads to a certificate of completion
- medical practitioners who have limited registration in the public interest or limited registration for teaching or research (to demonstrate a procedure or participate in a workshop) and who have been granted registration for no more than four weeks
- medical practitioners who are granted an exemption or variation from this standard by their CPD home in relation to continuous absence from practice of at least six months and up to and including 12 months for parental or carer leave, serious illness or other approved circumstances
- medical practitioners with non-practising registration.
What if I’m not with a training program?
- You don’t need to make a CPD home decision yet
- Keep doing the self-directed CPD you’ve been doing – 50 hours annual CPD including at least one practice-based reflective element
- You can check current requirements here
- In 2022/23, keep an eye out for new, accredited CPD homes that offer CPD programs relevant to your scope of practice
- You will need to join a CPD home by January 2024
For a more extensive list of what activities could be included click here.
Educational – CPD
- Active learning modules
- Study towards formal qualifications
- Supervised practice
- Lectures, forums, panels
- Courses and workshops
- Reading, reviewing, listening to educational materials
- Teaching
- Supervising and mentoring
- Research and publishing
- Editing or reviewing research
Measuring outcomes – CPD
- Audit on own practice
- Root cause analysis
- Incident report
- Individual quality improvement project
- Audit (practice, national or international)
- M&M meetings, case conferences
- Quality improvement project
- Multi-disciplinary team meetings
- Assessing incident reports
- Leading, analysing, writing reports on healthcare outcomes
Reviewing performance – CPD
- Professional development plan
- Self-evaluation and reflection
- Direct observation of practice by colleague
- Patient experience survey
- Multi-source feedback
- Workplace performance appraisal
- MDT meetings
- Peer review group meetings
- Medical services survey/review
- Participating in clinical governance
- Accrediting/auditing practices, hospitals, training sites
- Medico-legal work
Keep up to date with your state/country requirements as renewing registration is more straight forward than reapplying.
For more ideas on ways to complete your CPD click here.
Hope this helps!