Professional Development Program for Registrars

The CPMEC Professional Development Program for Registrars (PDR) aims to improve the leadership and management performance of individual registrars through a sustainable, national professional development program. The program was initiated by the Postgraduate Medical Council of Victoria as part of the strategies to provide for more effective supervision and teaching of junior doctors in Australia through funding from the Australian Department of Health and Ageing (DoHA). Recognition of the centrality of the registrar role in the supervision and education of doctors in their prevocational years in all states and territories was the underpinning rationale for the program. PDR seeks to improve the quality of educational supervision provided to doctors in their prevocational years by developing the teaching and supervision skills of registrars.

The first stage of the project identified competencies to underpin the professional development of registrars through a national workshop. In the second stage, a pilot program was developed and trialled in a limited number of hospital sites. Extension to Stage 2 of the project allowed for further pilot programs and greater engagement with key stakeholders in postgraduate medical education and training. Funding for both stages of the project was provided by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing.

The PDP for Registrars project has achieved the following outcomes:

Engagement and support from a wide range of stakeholders in postgraduate medical education and training including postgraduate medical council, registrars, medical administrators, clinical educators, senior clinicians, colleges, and junior doctor organisations.
Extensive literature review and assessment of similar professional development programs from domains other than medicine as well as ‘off the shelf’ programs offered in the medical domain.
Development of a training programs for registrars and undertaking detailed evaluation of each.
Raising awareness of the need for professional development training programmes in a range of national and state forums.
Strong communication links with registrars drawn from a range of training programs throughout Australia.

Providing support for national rollout of the program to states which has included:
Development of extensive resources and workbooks to support the national rollout.
Development of a Trainer Accreditation Program (TAP) to support the rollout.
Supporting trainers who have undertaken TAP to deliver the program.
Work on the development of a website to support the rollout of the PDP program (This is still under construction).

Funding support for the rollout from a number of state health departments

The PDP for Registrars project has been successful in highlighting the importance of building leadership talent pool and capabilities of the medical management workforce. Its focus as a developmental program has generated extremely positive outcomes not only with the participating registrars but senior clinicians involved with the program in various sites throughout Australia. It has also engendered a greater sense of engagement between the participating registrars and their hospitals. Most importantly it has identified a major lacuna in postgraduate medical education and provided a solution to redress that gap with a practically oriented program.

For enquiries about this Professional Development Program contact Dr Jag Singh at jsingh@cpmec.org.au