Curriculum delivery
Theme: Curriculum implementation
Training provider criteria and requirements
7.1 | The training program delivers clinical experience, social and formal learning, which provides a trainee with opportunities to increase their professional responsibility and achieve curriculum learning goals.
A trainee has an opportunity to learn, the training is aligned to their learning plan and they are taught using a breadth of learning methods.
The 70:20:10 framework is a learning and development reference model used by the RACP to describe the 3 types of workplace learning that are provided to a trainee:
- Clinical experience (70%)
- Social (20%)
- Formal (10%)
A training provider identifies the parts of the curriculum that a trainee can partially or completely achieve by working in the Setting. The Setting demonstrates:
- what the clinical experience, social and formal learning opportunities offered in a rotation are and how they map to the curriculum
- how the formal learning program, across a Setting or Training Network, links to the curriculum learning goals and enhances clinical experience and social learning
- how a rotation’s formal learning program links to the curriculum learning goals being delivered in the rotation
Training rotations are coordinated. A trainee receives a group of rotations, which provides a breadth and depth of work experience to address the curriculum learning goals. The rotations are sequenced to increase a trainee’s level of professional responsibility. Work experiences are supported with social learning. In a rotation, a trainee receives:
- patient-based teaching experiences
- patient, family and supervisor interactions
- bedside teaching
- access to current diagnostic and therapeutic evidence-based practice
A trainee has opportunities to learn from and collaborate with colleagues, multidisciplinary teams, and other medical disciplines. Formal learning is accessible, aligned to the curriculum and adjustable for different levels of trainee competence. Formal learning for the training program is planned, structured and regularly delivered with a flexible format that maximises attendance, participation and effectiveness.
A trainee is encouraged and provided with opportunities to attend external conferences and courses relevant to their training. Study leave entitlements, including the application process, are transparent, equitable and understood by the trainee. There is a distance education strategy and communication infrastructure to deliver learning.
Where a Training Network exists, they are responsible for delivering a network-wide formal learning program that is accessible by all trainees across Settings.
7.1.1 | The training provider provides clinical experience, social and formal learning opportunities that align to the Basic Training Program curriculum.
Trainee attendance at social or formal learning opportunities is not prevented by service delivery or gaps in the roster. All trainees have access to a formal learning program. Formal learning is organised by the Setting offering the principal training program or a Training Network.
7.1.2 | The training provider ensures a trainee’s rotations align to the clinical experience requirements outlined in the Basic Training Program curriculum.
Induction is provided to all Foundation phase trainees, including those who didn't start their training at the beginning of a clinical year. The induction outlines Basic Training Program curriculum and requirements, the trainee’s responsibility for learning, professional expectations and engagement with RACP events and activities.
7.1.3 | The training provider enables a trainee to complete the required and recommended formal learning courses identified for each phase of the Basic Training Program curriculum.
A list of the required and recommended learning courses are outlined in the Adult Internal Medicine and Paediatrics & Child Health Basic Training Learning, Teaching and Assessment Program requirements.
7.2 | A trainee receives an induction to the training program that explains the curriculum, training requirements, rotations and the formal learning program.
7.2.1 | The training provider provides an induction to the training program to a trainee within 2 weeks of commencing the Foundation phase of training.
7.3 | A trainee is offered training experiences, including technology enhanced training, supervisory responsibilities, quality and safety activities, projects, research and teaching.
There are Fellows to facilitate broader learning experiences and a trainee is informed of the available activities and given guidance on how to participate. Where a trainee performs clinical and educational supervisory roles for less experienced trainees, there needs to be a clinical and educational supervisor overseeing this learning.
7.4 | A trainee receives cultural safety training.
Cultural safety training involves a doctor:
- reflecting on their own views and biases and how these could affect their decision-making and health outcomes for the patient
- recognizing that they inherently hold the power in a doctor-patient relationship and should consider how this affects their engagement with the patient and the way the patient received their care
- developing the attitudes, skills and knowledge to function effectively and respectfully when working with and treating people of different cultural backgrounds
Setting criteria and requirements
7.5 | A rotation has a workload, profile of work, access to clinical services and supervision to enable a trainee to receive a breadth and depth of learning opportunities consistent with the curriculum.
The work experiences within a rotation encompass a diversity of illnesses and patient populations, various stages of disease and patient continuity of care. Rotations offer the opportunity for acute, inpatient, ambulatory and/or longitudinal care.
A Setting has accessible and suitable administrative, diagnostic, investigative, interventional, operative, consultative and therapeutic services so a trainee can manage their patients’ safely, complete their work responsibilities and learn.
A Setting provides a rotation description (using the RACP template) for each rotation, which outlines the team structure, trainee work experiences and learning opportunities, supervision and assessments.
A rotation’s duration enables the trainee to integrate into the team, achieve the learning goals and complete the required assessments. It also allows the supervisor to make reliable judgements about the trainee’s abilities, performance and progress.
7.5.1 | The Setting is required to have the Basic Training rotations it offers prospectively accredited by the RACP.
A rotation is at least 10 to 11 weeks long.
Accredited rotations are to continuously align with the learning goals of the Adult Internal Medicine and/or Paediatrics & Child Health Basic Training Program curriculum, RACP Training Provider Standards and Basic Training accreditation requirements.
A rotation without accreditation doesn’t count towards a trainee’s clinical experience requirements. A training provider is to actively minimise placing a trainee into an unaccredited rotation. If this must occur, the training provider is to inform the trainee prior to commencement of the rotation that it will not contribute to their clinical experience requirements.
7.5.2 | The Setting ensures a rotation has formal learning opportunities aligned to the responsibilities required by the department’s clinical service.
Formal learning is a structured activity that provides a supportive framework to deliver learning goals. Formal learning develops an understanding of the foundations, theories and evidence, which underpin and/or amplify what is learned through experience and social interaction. Examples include interprofessional meetings, journal clubs, exam preparation patient presentations and courses.
7.6 | Patient rounds and appointments are undertaken at times that facilitate patient-based teaching, completion of trainee duties and attendance at formal learning.
7.7 | A trainee has protected time for formal learning.
A trainee attending formal learning is not interrupted by service delivery demands unless there is an exceptional and unanticipated need to maintain patient safety.
7.7.1 | The Setting provides a minimum of 4 hours of formal learning per week with 2 hours being protected.
The RACP learning model states 10% of the learning is formal.
This is a transitional requirement that acknowledges not all Settings can currently offer 4 hours of protected formal learning. This requirement will be modified in the next review to state a Setting needs to provide 4 hours of protected formal time.
For a Setting exceeding the requirement, the RACP expects the current protected formal learning to be maintained. For a Setting where there is a contractual or award requirement for trainee protected formal learning, the RACP expects the Setting to compare the contract requirements to the accreditation requirement and provide the trainee with protected formal learning which is of greatest benefit to the trainee.
The Setting offering a principal training program is to ensure that a trainee’s formal learning and protected time averages to 4 and 2 hours per week over a year, respectively. Where the number of hours of protected time offered is less than the number of hours of formal learning offered, the Setting in consultation with the trainees will determine which formal learning activities are protected.
Training Network criteria
7.8 | The Training Network delivers an integrated training program that provides a trainee with the necessary work experiences and learning opportunities required to successfully complete the training program.
A Training Network plans, coordinates and implements the delivery of an integrated training program(s). The Training Network demonstrates:
- how the curriculum and training program requirements are delivered to each trainee
- how the curriculum is mapped to the rotations and formal learning
- each Setting’s role in curriculum delivery
- how it addresses any training gaps in the integrated training program
- how it effectively shares and distributes resources across the Training Network