What you need to know
From 1 January 2023, it became mandatory for every doctor to have a CPD home. Here's what you need to know regarding your CPD requirements:
✓ You must now log 50 hours of CPD annually
✓ Must complete an annual Professional Development Plan - ACRRM members can view a free template in their CPD Portfolio in My College
✓ CPD must be relevant to your individual scope of practice
✓ CPD includes activities related to Culturally Safe Practice, Health inequities, Professionalism, and Ethical practice
✓ All GPs are required to complete CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) training once every three years. To meet this requirement, the course undertaken must meet the Australian Resuscitation Council guidelines. Examples of appropriate courses include BLS and ALS which include CPR for adults.
✓ To maintain Fellowship, ACRRM Fellows must complete an Advanced Life Support (ALS) course every 3 years
CPD categories
You can now record 50 hours of CPD across different activity types. However, each category has a requirement of a minimum number of hours.
- 12.5 hours of educational activities
- 25 hours combined in the performance review and outcome measurement categories, with a minimum of five hours in each category.
- 12.5 hours made up from a choice in any of the three categories.
See below for examples of activities in each category.
Educational Activity
Includes: reading, viewing, or listening to educational material, active learning courses (online or face to face), study towards formal qualifications, supervised practice attachments, attending lectures, forums, workshops.
Performance Review
Includes: measures that analyse and reflect on your actual work processes. This often includes feedback from peers, colleagues, and patients, undertaking teaching activities or supervising colleagues. It also includes undertaking practice accreditation activities.
Outcome Measurement
Includes: reviewing practice data & reflecting on your patients’ health outcomes in activities i.e PUNS and DENs, case-based discussions, review of medical records, clinical audit, patient feedback, peer observation of teaching, morbidity and mortality meetings & practice analytics.
CPD Program-level Requirements
The Medical Board of Australia has updated its CPD Registration Standard and now requires all medical practitioners to engage in CPD activities relevant to:
- culturally safe practice
- health inequalities
- professionalism
- ethical practice
These are not additional to but need to be included as part of your required 50 hours of CPD. Each year you must complete at least one CPD activity that addresses each of these areas, ensuring that they are relevant to your scope of practice.
You can find accredited CPD activities that relate to each requirement, search for them on the accredited activity page.
ACRRM Maintenance of Professional Standards (MOPS)
The ACRRM Maintenance of Professional Standards (MOPS) program represents an elective advancement in CPD record management and reporting, specifically tailored for members possessing advanced skills in procedural, mental health, or emergency practice. Participation in MOPS fulfils the specific requirements of maintaining ACRRM Fellowship and contributes significantly to completing your broader annual CPD obligations. Learn more about MOPS.
Specialist High-level Requirements:
Ahpra requires medical specialists to complete any high-level requirement as mandated by their specialist college. These are additional mandatory CPD activities to maintain relevant qualifications and skills relevant to their clinical scope of practice.
Specialties with high-level requirements encompass anaesthesia, emergency medicine, general practice, intensive care medicine, obstetrics and gynaecology, pain medicine, psychiatry, radiology, sport and exercise medicine, and surgery. More information is available here.
If you are an ACRRM CPD Home or CPD Home Essentials member with specialist registration in one of these areas, please fill out this form - Application for CPD Specialist Requirements so we can track
these requirements in your CPD Home and report them to Ahpra at the end of the CPD year. For more detailed information, please contact the ACRRM CPD team.