CPD Frequently Asked Questions

CPD is a requirement for registration by both Medical Council of New Zealand (MCNZ) and the Medical Board of Australia (MBA) as well as a RACMA constitutional requirement to maintain membership.

If you wish to be registered in the speciality of Medical Administration in both New Zealand and Australia, then you need to be CPD compliant irrespective of your hours or location of work.

Different colleges have different requirements; you are required to maintain yourself in good standing with the relevant colleges. If you have undertaken leadership, management of clinical governance CPD activities for your clinical college, those activities can also be submitted to RACMA. The clinical converse does not apply. Upskilling in cervical cytology or laparoscopic skills CPD does not count for RACMA CPD as this is not a management, leadership or clinical governance component to that particular CPD.

As outlined in the RACMA Constitution, it is a requirement to meet CPD requirements to maintain ongoing membership with the College.

Your CPD activities must be recorded in your MyRACMA account which can be accessed through the college website via computer, mobile phone or tablet. Instructions on loading new activities are available on the webpage.

The CPD cycle is based on a calendar year from January to 31 December. To ensure that you remember all your activities, it is recommended that they are entered throughout the year as they are undertaken but you have until March 31 the next year to finalise your entries.

Please click HERE for a step by step guide.

A PDP is a formal means by which you set your goals, strategies and outcomes to meet your development and learning needs.

You may use the online form available in MyRACMA to record your PDP. Instructions on how to do this are provided as a Quick Reference Guide under the MyRACMA page on the website. Alternatively, you may wish to either use one of the PDP templates provided on the MyRACMA page of the website, or attach your own organisational personal development plan if you have undertaken a performance review with your employer or Executive Coach.

Reflective writing differs from other kinds of university writing that you may be more familiar with. Reflective writing is meant to encourage you to reveal your personal thoughts about your life experiences in relation to the content you are learning about in your units.  Many assessment tasks at university ask for reflection.

Writing reflectively can be assisted with some guiding questions:

• What happened during that event or experience? And why did it happen?
• What was my role in the event? And why did I adopt that particular role?
• What were my feelings during that experience? And why did I feel that way?
• What were my thoughts during that experience? And why did I think that way?
• How do I interpret what I experienced or observed?
• What might this experience mean in the context of my course?
• What other perspectives, theories or concepts could be applied to interpret the situation?
• How can I learn from this experience?

There are a number of reflection models you can use to help construct your writing. One useful reflection model is “The 4 Rs” which is outlined below.  The 4Rs process is based on “Reflection-On-Action” – this means actions are analysed and re-framed after an event or observation, and potential solutions are developed. The process is designed to encourage you to address your ongoing learning from a number of standpoints, such as practical, cognitive and emotional, and from your own values, ethics and beliefs.

The 4 R’s

Report: In the Report stage you describe, report or retell the key elements of what you have learnt, seen or experienced.

Relate: In the Relate stage you draw a relationship between your current personal or theoretical understandings and identify aspects of the observation that have a personal meaning or that connect with your experience.

Reason: In the Reason stage you explore the relationship between theory and practice and seek a deep understanding of why something has happened.
You explore or analyse a concept, event or experience by asking questions and looking for answers, reviewing the literature, considering alternatives and multiple perspectives.

Reconstruct: In the Reconstruct stage you discuss improvements that could be made or identify something you need or plan to do or change. You should be able to generalise and/or apply your learning to other contexts and your future professional practice. This might involve developing general principles, formulating personal theories of teaching or taking a stand or position on an issue.

[1] http://www.deakin.edu.au/students/studying/study-support/academic-skills/reflective-writing

Neither MBA nor MCNZ  require mandatory uploading of CPD evidence.

We have a capability for members to upload their CPD evidence, so that should they be audited by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA), their data is easy to extract. Should members choose not to attach their evidence we do ask members to accurately describe their CPD activity so that the relevant Continuing Education Program Committee (CEPC) jurisdictional coordinator can assess the validity of their submission.

This applies only to Australian Fellows who are registered as specialists in medical administration on the AHPRA website.

AHPRA and the National Boards have developed a nationally consistent approach to auditing health practitioners’ compliance with mandatory registration standards. Audits are an important part of the way for health practitioners to demonstrate to the community and to Boards that they are meeting the mandatory registration standards.

[2] http://www.medicalboard.gov.au/Registration/Audit.aspx

Random audits of practitioners from all professions will occur periodically throughout the year.

If you are selected for audit, you will receive an audit notice in the mail from AHPRA. It includes a checklist that outlines what supporting documentation is required to demonstrate that you meet the standard(s) being audited.

Each time you apply to renew your registration, you make a declaration that you have (or have not) met the registration standards for your profession. The audit requires that you provide further information to support your declarations.

Your audit notice letter will identify which standard(s) are being audited. One or more of the following four mandatory registration standards may be audited:

• Criminal history registration standard;
• Continuing professional development registration standard;
• Recency of Practice registration standard; and
• Professional indemnity insurance arrangements registration standard.

This used to be an option for members. It does not occur any more – we have an annual CPD reporting period. Anyone who is still on a triennium program needs to commence the new cycle of annual activities as of 1 January 2018.

An ad hoc audit involves the opportunistic survey of some specific practice prompted by the development of a related hypothesis by an observant clinician.

A potential problem is identified and investigated and if necessary, changes in practice that are designed to improve patient care are implemented. These audits occur over a finite period and contrast with retrospective chart audits and the use of clinical indicators which are ongoing and continuous processes.

Most health care-related will have standards to guide process – open disclosure; bullying and harassment; company director requirements; clinical governance standards etc. they are often start based. These can be a standard by which you and /or your organisation can review current process; enact a plan for change; develop an action plan and review changes.

[3] NSW Health Clinicians Toolkit

A Peer Review meeting is but one way of undertaking peer review. It is a meeting in which clinicians seek to improve their treatment of patients, and to maintain the currency of their practice by focusing on recent events and outcomes (individual or collected) of the patients under the care of the group forming the meeting.

The benefits of peer review, in its most narrow definition (ie. a meeting of senior medical practitioners only), are not easily able to be quantified, but it still plays an important role in the quality improvement efforts of a number of clinicians, particularly in some disciplines.[4]

There are many models where members get together to meet and discuss relevant leadership, management and clinical governance issues. For example: Journal clubs and clinical management review meetings.

[4] NSW Health Clinicians Toolkit

A Grand Round is usually an opportunity for continuous medical education. If it (typically) takes an hour then log it as Continuing Medical Education (CME), describe the session (title and hospital), submit the reflection and log 1 hour.

Generally they will be automatically uploaded on the system if you have registered with RACMA beforehand. If you have not registered, they cannot be ascribed to you so you will need to upload the activity yourself.

What is considered inappropriate to submit:

• Entries from a work diary for a month;
• Lists of committees you chair in the course of your work; and
• Attendance at routine work-related activities.

Journal club attendance – per hour with reflection

Grand Round attendance – per hour with reflection

Conference attendance – per hour with reflection (excluding breaks eg lunch)

Post graduate education – per hour with reflection

Lecture preparation – one hour

Lecture presentation – one hour