Components of Training

Core Training
Clinical Infectious Diseases
Training should include diagnosis and management of patients in the wide range of the most common and important infections.

Essential areas of training include:

• HIV related disease and sexually transmitted diseases.
  
• General infectious diseases in hospitalised patients, including infections of surgical patients and in intensive care.
  
• Infections in patients immunosuppressed for transplantation.
  
• Infections in patients immunosuppressed by cancer and its treatment.
  
• Tropical/travel and geographic medicine.
  
• Infection control.
  
• Immunization.
  
• Childhood and neonatal infections, including those associated with primary immunodeficiency.

Logbook
All advanced trainees will keep a logbook that records patients seen with their diagnosis. The purpose of the logbook is to record the extent of the training experience. These will be reviewed six monthly by the supervisor of the advanced trainee and used in preparation of the supervisor's report.

Trainees will maintain a logbook documenting clinical experience and attendance at educational activities as described above. The log-books will usually be evaluated by the supervisor, at least every six months, exceptin exceptional circumstances, when the SAC may ask to view the logbook.

Laboratory Training
The laboratory component of training consists of either a minimum of six months spent working in a microbiology laboratory providing routine clinical services (this experience should be documented by the supervisor on the supervisor's report form); or attendance at an SAC-sponsored microbiology training course which will include pre reading, a two week intensive, hands-on course in laboratory methods and an associated series of lectures on the topics of antibiotic resistance, introduction to parasitology, and/or introduction to laboratory virology.

This two-week training course will be followed by a small laboratory-based project at the home institution and participation in a number of laboratory-based quality assurance projects forwarded to trainees by the training course supervisor.

For trainees undertaking the laboratory component of training a supervisor's report should be provided documenting successful completion of the laboratory training.

Formal Teaching
Candidates are expected to attend teaching sessions in important relevant areas:

• Clinical epidemiology and public health.
  
• Immunisation.
  
• Infection control.
  
• Antibiotic resistance.
  
• Infections in pregnancy.
  
• Tropical medicine and parasitology.
  
• Virology.
  
• Mycology.
  
• Sexually transmitted diseases.
  

Lectures in these areas will be included in the Annual Conference of the Australian Society of Infectious Diseases, during the registrars' day, usually held prior to that conference, at the time of the laboratory courses and on other occasions. Attendance at courses covering at least six of these eight major topics shall be documented in the logbook, and reviewed by supervisors.

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