Goal two
Continuing education
and development
Whether our members learn from the seminar room, the ward or their home office, the College strives to deliver the highest quality learning resources for them. Our team works to provide opportunities that enrich learning, and understands that flexibility and practicality are key elements to make this work for our members.
There are a variety of ways our members can engage with their learning and professional development:
- Medflix The College’s educational video library, Medflix, released over 100 webinars and lectures in the last year on a huge range of topics for both Fellows and trainees. It is easily accessible via RACP Online Learning, and all videos can be played seamlessly on your desktop or mobile device.
- The College Learning Series The pandemic has underscored the importance of online resources like CLS. This curriculum-mapped and member-driven resource has continued to grow, with over 300 Fellows and trainees now contributing every year. In 2022, 149 lecture videos were delivered under the CLS Adult Medicine Program, and the CLS Paediatrics & Child Health Program boosted its inaugural series, launched on 30 June 2021, to 106 lecture videos. The CLS remains a fundamental course for Basic Trainees.
- Supervisor Professional Development Program Online Courses As well as its face-to-face and Zoom workshops, the SPDP can also be completed as a series of three online courses that were designed to train doctors to become supervisors in teaching hospitals. Eight online SPDP courses were offered in 2022 – an increase from six or seven courses in previous years – to assist in accommodating the number of members working to meet their SPDP completion requirements. There was an increase of 242 enrolments compared to 2021.
- The Pomegranate Health Podcast The College produces roughly 12 episodes a year and has amassed nearly 100 episodes for members to tune into. It is easily accessible through the RACP College website as well as all major streaming platforms.
Curated Collections
The new Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and Māori Cultural Safety Curated Collection has been designed to support physicians in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand to provide more impactful, meaningful and culturally safe care for Indigenous patients, their families, whānau and communities.
The Collection presents a detailed library of resources that can help members understand and implement culturally safe practices in the workplace.
The library can be filtered by theme, country, resource type and level of experience to find relevant resources to suit the individual’s level of experience and knowledge. We encourage members to revisit this Curated Collection as they develop their understanding of cultural safety over time and consider how this can shape their practice. The Curated Collection will support members with the 2023 CPD Framework requirement, which strongly encourages activities which focus on cultural safety and issues of health equity.
Building capacity and community with our Overseas Trained Physicians
The College’s overseas trained physicians (OTPs) are a vital part of our community. When the borders were shut during COVID and in-person assessments were no longer an option, we had to pivot to ensure that the process could still run smoothly. Labour shortages added pressure to both the industry and the OTPs, but the College and our physicians were flexible, adaptable, and able to meet their benchmarks despite the obstacles.
We are incredibly proud of our OTPs for stepping up to the challenge from a professional perspective. As a community of our College, we are pleased to see how supportive our OTPs are of one another.
“Thanks for your tireless work throughout 2022. It has been a challenging time, with all RACP and hospital staff under increased pressure, and many feeling tired and depleted. Despite this, you have been leading innovation in streamlining our processes so that good decisions are made as quickly as is practical, documented clearly and communicated well to OTPs... I am currently in Rwanda with an American team, and they are envious of how we have established processes to rigorously assess OTPs and enable them to contribute to health care in Australia, with unnecessary retraining. Without your work, this would not be possible.” – Tim Walker, Chair AMD Sub-Committee
International collaboration through the Tri-Nations Alliance
We continue to be a member of the Tri-Nations Alliance (TnA), a formal collaboration between medical colleges in Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand and Canada. The TnA was established to support a vision of the colleges as being globally cooperative in sharing information, experience and expertise, and providing educational insights and opportunities to support international collaboration.
Before a return to face-to-face TnA annual events in Australia in 2023, the College had worked with the other member colleges this year to host and participate in webinars on key areas of mutual interest, including developments and challenges during COVID-19. The webinars supported the colleges’ sharing of insights and experiences on the following topics:
- Progressing assessment in a period of disruption.
- Strengthening CPD through self-reflection to improve patient outcomes.
- Supporting wellbeing.