CPD for General Practice Medical Educators

Education > CPD Home > Continuing professional development for GPs > 2023-25 Triennium

Last updated 15 March 2024

Purpose

This guide outlines how the RACGP will recognise and record CPD hours for eligible GP medical educators, acknowledging the professional development that occurs when designing and delivering educational activities for registrars and GP supervisors.

Background

Under the Medical Board of Australia’s current CPD Registration Standard GPs, like all doctors, are required to complete 50 hours of CPD each year. CPD activities must include of a mix of:

Educational activities (EA) – activities that expand general practice knowledge skills and attitudes, related to the GP’s scope of practice
Measuring outcomes (MO) – activities that use a GP’s work data to ensure quality results
Reviewing performance (RP) – activities that require reflection on feedback about a GP’s work.

Automatic allocation of CPD hours for GP Medical Educators

Being a GP medical educator is an important specific interest within the GP specialty. Professional development activities that advance a GP medical educator's knowledge and skills in their specific interest area have long been accepted as forming part of a GP’s Continuous Professional Development (CPD) activities. Additionally, when teaching, mentoring, and assessing another medical practitioner, the GP learner advances their core general practice knowledge and skills. This is because these activities involve reflection-on-action through interacting with a colleague, deconstructing clinical decisions, and sharing and testing ideas and skills. These are activities that meet the reviewing performance (RP) and measuring outcomes (MO) CPD categories.

In 2024 the RACGP will automatically record a substantial portion of each GP medical educators’ CPD requirements in recognition of the professional development that occurs whilst educating GP registrars. A GP medical educator, like every GP, should consider the breadth of their learning needs and undertake CPD that meets these needs. A medical educator will still need to complete other CPD activities to complete their annual CPD requirement of 50 hours.

CPD activities that form part of your role as a medical educator and are therefore included in the automatically recorded portion of CPD include but are not limited to:

management and facilitation of out of practice a small group learning sessions for GP registrars
undertaking clinical teaching visits
contributing to registrar workplace-based assessment feedback
providing exam preparation support for registrars
supporting in-practice supervisors with teaching and supervision as well as their professional development.

How will CPD for GP Medical Educators be applied?

Who: This simplified process applies to RACGP Medical Educators formally working in the Australian General Practice Training program (AGPT), the Fellowship Support Program (FSP) or the Practice Experience Program (PEP) Specialist Stream.

The CPD team is working on the CPD allocation for medical educators working in other RACGP roles. Non-RACGP, casually employed MEs or external medical educators can self-record their medical educator CPD via QuickLog.

What: RACGP Medical Educators will automatically be allocated 30 hours of CPD. The allocation will cover all three of the MBA activity types: EA, RP and MO. CPD recognition will be automatically allocated to GP medical educators’ 2024 RACGP CPD statements by the RACGP.

When: CPD hours will be allocated in June 2024. Medical educators who join the program after June 2024 should contact the CPD team for advice about their ME CPD.

RACGP Medical Educators in 2024*
30 hours of CPD	5 hours of Educational Activities (EA)
	20 hours Reviewing Performance (RP)
	5 hours Measuring Outcomes (MO)

*Automatically awarded to RACGP MEs employed in AGPT, FSP, or PEP at least 0.2 FTE. The hours provided in the table above are based on the portion of the time spent in the ME role directly contributing to GP professional development. Medical educators who believe they will spend less time on ME CPD in 2024 than the automatically allocated hours can contact their local CPD Program Coordinator to have their hours adjusted. Where medical educators undertake additional CPD specific to their ME role, this can be self-recorded. Remaining CPD requirements can be met in whatever way best suits the professional development needs relative to the individual’s scope of practice (see below suggestions)

Recording a Casual External clinical teaching visit (ECTV)

Use the prefilled quick log below:

You can use this custom QuickLog to record your ECTV Reviewing Performance time. Simply select the date of the visit, indicate the amount of time relevant to reviewing your own performance and add any notes you’d like to include then select Submit. What you capture may reduce over time and number of visits attended, for example you may capture 3 hours for your first visit but with reducing hours captured the more visits you do per year so that by your 3rd visit you may only be capturing 1 hour of CPD.

Scan the QR to access the custom QuickLog

Simple solutions to meet your remaining CPD requirements

Undertake RACGP led educational activities such as:

a gplearning online module relevant to medical education – explore the Medical educators learner journey.
attend an RACGP GP or other medical educator activity
participate in an education research project or
review or update standards for the College.

CPD will all be automatically recorded to myCPD.

Complete a unit of check (browse to find a unit of interest to you)

Completion of most units of check will provide you with around 10 hours of CPD (evenly split between Educational activities and Reviewing performance hours)

CPD will all be automatically recorded to myCPD.

Log GP-led activities (in practice group activities)

The following activities can help contribute to your Reviewing performance and/or Measuring outcomes hours.

Practice meetings
Peer group learning
Patient or peer feedback (multisource feedback)
Plan, do, study, act (PDSA)
Random case analysis
Case-based discussions

This CPD will need to be logged via QuickLog or the GP-led activity form in your myCPD home.

Use browse on myCPD Home

Find a workshop, conference, webinar or online course offered by the RACGP or one of our CPD providers.
Many CPD activities can contribute to both your Educational activities/ Reviewing performance hours.

CPD will all be automatically recorded to myCPD.

Your Professional Development Plan (claim up to 5 hours of Reviewing performance CPD).

Log into RACGP’s myCPD home and use the PDP tool or upload your own PDP.

A mini audit to evaluate patient care or practice-based processes (approx. 5-6 hours of Measuring outcomes).

For a self-directed mini audit follow our suggested steps. You can also find audits to complete gplearning, or an education provider’s site.

* According to the Medical Board of Australia CPD must include a range of activities to meet individual learning needs so your annual CPD must be relevant to your scope of practice enabling you can maintain, develop, update and enhance your knowledge, skills and performance and deliver appropriate and safe care. You are encouraged to consider the full breadth of your learning needs and undertake CPD to address those needs.