Make the most of the rest of 2025 to finalise your CPD
Date published:
04 Nov 2025
With 2 months to go until the end of 2025, it’s time to cross off those final tasks to close out the CPD year. We’ve consolidated everything you need to know to finalise your CPD and end your CPD year on a high.
Your CPD is self-directed
While the Medical Board of Australia and Medical Council of New Zealand set the broad CPD Framework, which is administered and managed independently by medical colleges such as the RACP, how physicians go about planning, undertaking and recording their CPD is at their discretion. In other words, CPD is self-directed. The responsibility for managing and completing activities relevant to one’s scope of practice CPD is on the individual.
This is where the Professional Development Plan (PDP) comes into its own. It outlines your learning goals, how you will achieve them, self-evaluation of progress from the previous CPD cycle, and planned CPD activities to achieve your current goals.
2025 CPD Framework
As of 2025, RACP CPD participants are required to complete 2 activities focusing on cultural safety and addressing health inequities, and 2 activities focusing on ethics and professional behaviour. These themes should be incorporated across all CPD activities.
The framework reflects regulators' registration and recertification requirements. These require all CPD programs to include elements that support practitioners to embed cultural safety, address health inequities, and uphold ethics and professional behaviour across their learning. Ongoing development in these areas provides practitioners with insights to deliver culturally safe care, maintain clinical excellence, and navigate complex ethical issues in alignment with professional standards.
Key elements of the RACP CPD Framework include:
- ✅ Record 50 hours of CPD undertaken in the calendar year 1 January – 31 December.
- ✅ Minimum of 12.5 hours across Category 1 – Educational Activities. This includes traditional CME activities such as conferences, reading journal articles or completing online learning modules.
- ✅ Minimum of 25 hours across Category 2 – Reviewing Performance and Category 3 – Measuring Outcomes. A minimum of five hours must be accrued in each category.
- ✅ The remaining 12.5 hours can be completed across any of the categories.
- ✅ Minimum of 2 activities involving cultural safety and addressing health inequities. These can be completed in any category.
- ✅ Minimum of 2 activities incorporating ethics and professional behaviour. These can also be completed in any category.
Have you completed all the above but haven’t logged your activity yet, or aren’t sure how to do this in your RACP MyCPD portal? Refresh your memory on how to Add an Activity below. Once all your CPD activities for the year are added, don’t forget to click the all-important “Submit” button to confirm your completed record for 2025.
Note: There will be no changes in 2026 to the RACP CPD Framework.
Category 2
Category 2 involves sourcing feedback from others on clinical and professional practice, such as peer review of records, patient feedback or multi-source feedback. The two mandatory activities — Professional Development Plan and Annual Conversation — provide the minimum five hours required for this category.
Other activities can include, but are not limited to, creating and maintaining a self-care plan; supervision of trainees or medical students; examining or assessing trainees; or conducting patient feedback and experience studies.
Category 3
Category 3 involves measurement of health outcomes. This may include an audit of standards or guidelines, practice against relevant EVOLVE recommendations, or incident reporting. From 2024, preparing research publications involving health outcomes data can also be recorded under Category 3.
Cultural Safety and Addressing Health Inequities
Cultural Safety is a key aspect of the RACP Professional Practice Framework, which encourages reflection on cultural identity, assumptions, and biases — crucial in delivering culturally safe care.
Examples of CPD activities:
- Participating in workshops, courses, conferences, podcasts or readings on cultural safety.
- Adding cultural safety-focused activities to your PDP.
Activities that focus on cultural safety can be recorded under Educational Activities (Category 1) by selecting the “cultural safety” domain in RACP MyCPD. You can also integrate it into your PDP (Category 2) or Annual Conversation by reflecting on practice and addressing biases or power dynamics.
Ethics and Professional Behaviour
Physicians demonstrate their commitment to ethical practice and accountability through professional behaviour.
Examples of CPD activities:
- Discussing ethical challenges and receiving feedback from colleagues or mentors.
- Listening to Pomegranate Health podcast episodes on ethics or professionalism.
Professional Development Plan (PDP)
Your PDP should already be developed and logged in your RACP MyCPD account. Completing your PDP early in the year helps guide your CPD activities. If not done yet, now is the perfect time before year-end.
A well-crafted PDP sets out your learning goals and activities for the CPD year. It counts as one of the two mandatory Category 2 activities, as it involves self-evaluation and planning for improvement.
How RACP can help with your PDP
- Download the PDP template from your RACP MyCPD Handbook — or upload your own.
- Use the PDP tool in RACP MyCPD to confirm if your planned activities meet your CPD requirements.
View the PDP in the RACP MyCPD.
We encourage you to discuss your PDP with a peer for insights and collaboration opportunities.
Annual Conversation
The Annual Conversation is a structured discussion with a colleague to reflect, plan, and receive feedback. If you already conduct an annual review, simply record it in RACP MyCPD.
Remember to log it! An annual performance review or appraisal can also fulfil this requirement.
Acceptable Evidence
Our Member Services Centre and CPD teams are often asked: “What category does this activity go into?” and “What counts as acceptable evidence?”
Acceptable evidence includes documents showing your name, the date of activity, the conducting organisation, and the activity title. Please don’t submit personal or identifiable patient data.
- If your activity focuses on education, it likely belongs in Category 1.
- If it involves reflecting on practice, it fits Category 2.
- If it centres on outcome analysis or protocol development, it belongs in Category 3.
You can find examples of acceptable CPD activities here (PDF).
Complete Your Mandatory CPD Requirements with RACP Online Learning
The RACP offers numerous physician-specific tools and resources to help you complete your CPD — many can be logged directly into MyCPD.
Cultural Safety and Health Inequities
Ethics and Professional Behaviour
Useful Resources
The RACP offers a library of templates, tools and resources across the Professional Practice Framework, including cultural safety, ethics, and professional behaviour. These can be found on the RACP Online Learning platform.
How to Add an Activity to RACP MyCPD
Need a refresher on how to add an activity to your record? Watch this quick video:
Final Steps
Remember, the CPD year closes on 31 December. With only a few short months left, now is the time to finalise your CPD, log your activities, and hit that all-important Submit button.