Curricula
Doctors in training Curricula
Curriculum Structure
Curriculum Statements
Doctors in Training Curricula
The Confederation of Postgraduate Medical Councils has developed an Australian Curriculum Framework for Junior Doctors which guides the learning for a prevocational doctor during their hospital and community placements.
Both ACRRM and the RACGP have developed a curriculum for AGPT training. Each identifies the knowledge and skills required for a registrar to be competent to practice unsupervised anywhere in Australia. In addition both Colleges have curricula for Advanced Skills training. Both Colleges also identify practical/procedural skills required for general practice.
While written differently there is a great deal of overlap between the two College curricula and for the purposes of AGPT training much of your registrar’s experience, teaching and supervision will easily cover both curriculum. These are useful documents to help:
- identify knowledge, skills, attitudes strengths and gaps
- plan for your registrar or prevocational doctor learning
- plan your teaching sessions
- assess progress
You can explore these documents in detail:
Australian Curriculum Framework for Junior Doctors
ACRRM Primary Curriculum
ACRRM Guide for Supervisors
ACRRM Advanced Specialised Skills Training curricula
RACGP Curriculum for Australian General Practice 2011
RACGP Advanced Rural Skills Training Curriculum Statements
ACRRM Procedural Skills logbook
RACGP Essential Skills Log
Curriculum structure
Both Colleges curriculum for the AGPT include Domains and curriculum statements. Table 1 allows you to compare ACRRM and RACGP Domains. There are some differences, but many similarities.
| ACRRM | RACGP |
|---|---|
| Core clinical knowledge and skills (eg. Communication, diagnostic, investigative, procedural, management skills; primary and secondary clinical care, best practice) | Communication skills and the patient-doctor relationship (eg. communication skills, patient centredness, health promotion, whole person care) |
| Extended clinical practice (eg. Extended clinical skills and management skills, after hours care, tertiary care, teamwork skills) | Applied professional knowledge and skills (eg. physical examination and procedural skills, medical conditions, decision making) |
| Emergency skills (eg. Retrieval medicine, emergency skills, disaster management) | Population health and the context of general practice (eg. epidemiology, public health, prevention, family influence on health, resources) |
| Population health (eg. population health model, public health infrastructure and interventions, prevention and health promotion, epidemiology models, early detection, systems and organisation of chronic care) | Professional and ethical role (eg. duty of care, standards, self appraisal, teacher role, research, self care, networks) |
| Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health (eg. Cultural influences on health, health status, culturally safe practice, social and emotional wellbeing, primary health care and community control, managing conditions in remote Indigenous populations) | Organisational and legal dimensions (eg. information technology, records, reporting, confidentiality, practice management) |
| Professional, legal and ethical practice (eg. Ethical practice, professional role, legislative issues. IT, occupational health and safety) | |
| Rural and remote context (eg. Understanding rural people and remote communities, survival skills, interprofessional teams, self-care) |
Curriculum Statements
There are a number of curriculum statements developed by each College. As with the Domains there is a large amount of overlap, and some College statements are subsumed in a different statement in the other College. You can however see some of the differences in focus of each College from the list of the statements below.
| ACRRM | RACGP |
|---|---|
| Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Adult Internal Medicine Aged Care Anaesthetics Child and Adolescent Health Dermatology Emergency Medicine Information Technology/Information Management Management Musculoskeletal Medicine Obstetrics/Women’s Health Office based general practice Ophthalmology Oral Health Palliative Medicine Population Health Psychiatry/Mental Health Radiology Rehabilitation Medicine Research and Evidence Based Medicine Strategic Skills in Rural and Remote General Practice Surgery | Philosophy and foundation of general practice Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Acute serious illness and trauma Aged care Children and young people’s health Chronic conditions Critical thinking and research Dermatology Disability Doctor’s health E-health Eye and ear medicine Genetics Integrative medicine Mental health Men’s health Musculoskeletal medicine Multicultural health Multidisciplinary care Occupational medicine Oncology Palliative care Pain management Population and public health Practice management Quality and safety Procedural skills Quality use of medicines Rural general practice Sexual health Sports medicine Teaching , mentoring and leadership in general practice Undifferentiated problems Women’s health |
You can explore in more depth
ACRRM Primary Curriculum
RACGP Common Training Outcomes
