CPD for General Practice Supervisors

CPD for General Practice Supervisors

Education > CPD Home > Continuing professional development for GPs > 2023-25 Triennium
Last updated 15 March 2024

Purpose

This guideline outlines how continuing professional development (CPD) hours are awarded to GP supervisors in recognition of the professional development that occurs when teaching and supervising registrars and when undertaking specific education to advance their skills as a GP supervisor.

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

Automatic allocation of CPD hours for GP supervisors

Supervising and teaching a registrar touches on all three CPD types. It is an educational activity (EA) that advances a supervisor’s core general practice knowledge and skills. As the supervisor role also includes reflection-on-action through interacting with a colleague, deconstruction of clinical decisions, and sharing and testing ideas and skills, it addresses the reviewing performance (RP) CPD type. A GP supervisor also helps shape safe clinical practice in registrars leading to improved patient care and patient outcomes. These are activities that contribute to the measuring outcomes (MO) CPD type.

In 2024, the RACGP will automatically record a substantial portion of each GP supervisors’ CPD requirements in recognition of the professional development that occurs when teaching and supervising registrars.

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

  • Orientating your registrar to the practice
  • Developing a teaching plan and supervision plan for a registrar in your practice
  • Preparing for and delivery of teaching sessions
  • Day to day supervision: responding to your registrar’s requests for assistance.
  • Providing feedback on observed performance
  • Monitoring your registrar’s well-being and the safety of their patients
  • Completing workplace-based assessment activities such as the Early Assessment for Safety and Learning, Mini-CEX, Random Case Analysis, and Term Report. 

How will the automatically allocated CPD for supervisors be applied?

Who: This simplified process applies to accredited RACGP supervisors in the Australian General Practice Training program (AGPT) and the Fellowship Support Program (FSP) who are supervising at least one GP registrar in 2024 in GPT1–3, Remediation, or Extension Assessment terms.

What: Designated supervisors will automatically be allocated 30 CPD hours whilst all other accredited supervisors at a practice with a registrar in an eligible training term will be allocated 20 hours of CPD. CPD will cover all three of the MBA activity types: EA, RP and MO. This will be allocated to GP supervisors’ 2024 RACGP CPD statements by the RACGP.

When: CPD hours will be allocated in May (mid-way through 2024.1) for supervisors who have a registrar in the first half of the year. For supervisors who only have a registrar in the second half of the year, hours will be allocated in August 2024. 

Only one allocation of CPD hours applies per calendar year.

GP Supervisor with at least one registrar in an eligible training term* during the calendar year
Designated Supervisor: 30 hours of CPD** 10 hours of Educational Activities (EA)
  15 hours Reviewing Performance (RP)
  5 hours Measuring Outcomes (MO)
Other (accredited) Supervisor: 20 hours of CPD** 5 hours of Educational Activities (EA)
  10 hours Reviewing Performance (RP)
  5 hours Measuring Outcomes (MO)

* The eligible training terms for the automatic allocation of CPD hours under these guidelines are GPT1–3, Remediation, and Extension Assessment
** The hours provided in the table above are based on estimates of time spent teaching and supervising by GP supervisors in these terms. Supervisors who spend less time than the automatically allocated hours or who do not wish to accept the automatic hours can contact cpd.national@racgp.org.au if they wish to have their hours adjusted. Where supervisors undertake additional supervisor CPD, this can be self-recorded.
 

Please note that only RACGP accredited supervisors are eligible and there will be no allocation of hours to GPs in the practice who assist with supervision or teaching but are not accredited.  

CPD for Supervisor Professional Development

Being a GP supervisor is a specific interest for a GP just as women's health or palliative care can be a specific interest. As with other specific interests, GP supervisors have a professional development requirement to retain their standing within their specific interest. Supervisor professional development (SPD) is the term given to activities that develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to teach and supervise registrars. The required SPD hours to maintain accreditation as a supervisor depends upon the training program and the number of registrars in your practice. More detail is provided for AGPT supervisors in ‘Supervisor Professional Development Requirements and Payments’.

Any SPD hours spent on developing the specific interest of being a GP supervisor are also accepted as CPD hours. These hours are in addition to the automatically allocated CPD hours for being a supervisor.

Supervisors undertaking SPD activities developed and run by RACGP national or regional teams will automatically be credited with CPD hours for their involvement. These hours will also be recorded in the in the Training Management System (TMS) for AGPT supervisors as SPD eligible hours. SPD eligible hours contribute towards meeting the requirement to maintain supervisor and practice accreditation and for payment of the practice supervisory stipend for AGPT supervisors.

Other organisations such as GPSA (General Practice Supervision Australia) also provide CPD hours for their webinars and other activities. It is also possible for supervisors to self-record other professional development activities that advance their supervisory skills such as reading journal articles, attending medical education journal clubs, or listening to relevant podcasts.

Supervisors should be aware that self-logged activities and CPD provided by other organisations are not recorded in the TMS and may not contribute towards the RACGP’s SPD requirements for supervisors. 

Summary

A GP supervisor, like every GP, should consider the breadth of their learning needs and select CPD that meets these needs. The RACGP recognises that being a GP supervisor is a professional development activity that advances knowledge and skills as a GP and accordingly automatically allocates CPD hours to supervisors of registrars in GPT1-3, remediation, and extension assessment terms. Supervisors of registrars in other terms can self-record using custom quick logs.

Activities that maintain skills in the specific interest of GP supervision are called SPD activities. SPD activities developed and run by RACGP national or regional teams will automatically be credited as CPD hours. They will also contribute to the minimum SPD requirement to maintain accreditation as a supervisor and payment of a practice supervisory stipend to eligible supervisors. Self-logged SPD activities and SPD activities run by other organisations can be awarded CPD hours but may not contribute towards minimum SPD requirements.