CPD FAQs

Find answers to questions covering the updated CPD program, CPD portfolio essentials, recognised emergency response courses/workshops, information for retiring fellows, what to do if you're selected for annual verification and much more.

CPD requirements

Embedding cultural safety and a focus on health equity across the CPD program is a key element of the Medical Council of New Zealand recertification requirements. The Australian Medical Council also highlights the need for CPD Homes in Australia to address culturally safe practice, addressing health inequities, professionalism and ethical practice (CAPE) in CPD program level requirements.

We’re working with an Aboriginal, a Torres Strait Islander and a Māori consultant to determine how to embed cultural safety and a focus on health equity across the CPD program, with a key output being updated guidance for CPD participants. More information will be shared once this guidance is available.

The ANZCA and FPM Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Program requirements include an annual cultural safety activity.

There is no minimum time requirement for the activity and hours spent completing it are claimable under Category 1 Practice evaluation – reviewing performance.

You can find more information and tips to meet this requirement in the cultural safety activity guidance.

While the work to embed cultural safety and a focus on health equity across the CPD program and address CAPE in the program level requirements continues, please see the following resources for more information about health equity:

International

New Zealand

Australia

You are welcome to utilise the college templates (linked in the CPD handbook). You can also create your own templates specific to your practice type. Please ensure that any templates you create meet our guidelines.

As a provisional fellow, you need to complete at least 50 hours of CPD. You can choose which activities you record to make up these hours. This may include CPD activities for areas of your training that don’t involve direct patient care.

All the CPD hours you complete during your time as a provisional fellow will go towards your first CPD year as a FANZCA. You don’t need to complete the mandatory practice evaluation activities or the emergency response activities, however you will need to do a CPD plan.

Please note: Additional CPD hours on the same pro-rata basis will be required for time spent in extended training.

The Medical Board of Australia (MBA) CPD requirements have been updated. If you’re an ANZCA trainee, your CPD requirements are already met by your college training program. If you interrupt your training, the MBA exemption criteria can be applied, and CPD is not required. Exemptions apply for parental, or carers leave, serious illness or other approved circumstances. See the MBA Registration Standards for more information.
New trainees starting part-way through training up to mid-year do not need to join a CPD home while they wait for their training to start.  
If you’re in approved interrupted training you do not need to nominate a CPD home, as exemptions apply for parental/carers leave, serious illness or other approved circumstances.
In the ANZCA and FPM CPD program’s recent redesign, the college had valuable input from trainee representatives. This makes the college your natural CPD home as it is designed by and for provisional fellows, specialist anaesthetists and specialist pain medicine physicians.
ANZCA trainees automatically get enrolled into the CPD program towards the end of training and are supported with that transition. Check out our helpful ‘How can I meet CPD requirements for my type of practice – I am an ANZCA provisional fellow’.

The Medical Board of Australia and Medical Council of New Zealand definitions of ‘practice’ are very broad and include any work that uses your medical skills and training, so a specialist anaesthetist or specialist pain medicine physician who works in administration, teaching or quality and safety with no direct patient care is still defined as ‘practising’ for registration purposes. The MBA and MCNZ requirements are therefore the same regardless of whether your practice involves direct patient care or not.

The ANZCA and FPM CPD Program practice without direct patient care practice type does not include the clinical-specific emergency response activity.

The regulatory requirements mandate that CPD participants must complete 25 hours of practice evaluation activities each year, with a minimum of five hours reviewing performance and five hours measuring outcomes.

This is a new requirement for those who practice without direct patient care, so we’ve developed guidance for relevant activities. We’ve also formed a reference group to consolidate templates and resources into a toolkit to further help you meet the requirement. The toolkit will be available in the second half of 2023.

If you're unable to meet the minimum CPD requirements due to exceptional circumstances, you can apply for special consideration. The ANZCA and FPM CPD Committee chair and/or FPM CPD officer, as relevant, will assess all applications.

Special consideration is generally looked at when you’ve had extended leave from practice, for reasons including a serious illness, loss or bereavement or parental leave. Depending on the circumstances, you could be granted an extension to complete any outstanding CPD requirements, or you may have your remaining requirements signed off. Please see the CPD Special Consideration Policy for more information.

Please update your CPD portfolio to reflect all completed activities, and provide as much information as possible to support the decision.

Please send special consideration requests to the CPD team. If your leave from practice exceeded 52 weeks, please also review the return to anaesthesia practice page.

CPD Portfolio

You can access the CPD portfolio directly via http://cpd.anzca.edu.au or using the quick links above. You may have noticed a change to the login screen due to new cyber security measures including the ‘single sign on’ screen. Please rest assured that you can continue to use your college ID number and password across all college resources.

Our 5-minute support video has been designed to help with accessing and navigate your CPD portfolio for the new 2023 annual CPD program. This includes helpful details on accessing your CPD portfolio.

Yes, we now have an ANZCA CPD App and is available to download for both Android and Apple devices. See below.

We enter some activities automatically into your pending folder, including:

Most college-run events.
Some modules completed in Learn@ANZCA.
Some assessments from the Training Portfolio System (TPS).

When you log into your CPD portfolio, you will find a purple button saying ‘view pending activities’ awaiting your confirmation.

Uploading evidence to your CPD activities is optional, however, we do recommend uploading evidence as you enter each activity as it may save you time in the long run should you be selected as part of our annual verification of CPD activities, or as part of an external audit process.

Please note: As 2023 is a transition year to the annual CPD program, we will not be conducting a verification of CPD activities (audit) and therefore evidence is not required for 2023 activities.

A detailed list of all current activities, including activity descriptions and evidence guidelines are in the CPD handbook. If you're still unsure which category an activity falls under, please contact us for assistance.

Your statement of participation is an annual statement confirming you have completed your CPD plan for the year and are therefore participating in the program.

The '-' means you are yet to complete your CPD plan.

The CPD portfolio has been tested and is compatible with many types and versions of web browsers and online devices. However, not all browsers and versions will fully support the CPD portfolio’s functions.

If you are using a browser or browser version and are experiencing difficulties with the portfolio, for example; you may not be able to save your activities or entries for your plan and/or evaluation, please attempt to access the portfolio on a difference device or browser (e.g. Chrome or Safari).

If problems persist, please contact the CPD team.

Yes. We have created support documents for the clinical practice type and for those who practice without direct patient care.

The support documents will help you become familiar with our CPD program and its requirements. The documents include a breakdown of CPD requirements, an annual CPD requirements checklist and other useful information and resources.

The CPD portfolio contains a record of all previous CPD cycles. You'll be able to access your certificates of compliance and statements of participation, statement summaries with your plan and evaluation, and a list of all activities entered.

You can access these records via the ‘Statements and certificates’ section of your portfolio.

Via the portfolio dashboard (located toward the bottom of the screen under ‘Milestones’), or via the ‘Statements and Certificates’ section of the CPD portfolio.

To access your statement of participation, you must complete your CPD plan.

You can access your certificate of compliance once you have met all of your annual requirements.

ANZCA CPD App

The CPD App is a helpful addition to the online CPD portfolio to help track your progress ‘on the go’, including how many hours you have completed across each category.

You can easily add evidence of your complete CPD activities, for example, take a picture of an M&M meeting attendance sheet and upload it instantly.

A detailed breakdown of your mandatory annual activities is available by swiping left.

The ANZCA CPD App is available to download from the Apple App store. Use this link to open the App store on your chosen device, or open the App store and search “ANZCA CPD APP”

You will see this icon:Click on the “get” button. If it says “open” you already have the App installed on your device3. Follow the instructions and prompts.

If you’re having trouble downloading, visit the Apple support website.

Once you’ve downloaded the app, click on Open or open directly from the icon. Use your college credentials to log in.

Still having trouble? Contact the CPD team

The ANZCA CPD App is available to download from the Google Play Store app store. Use this link to open the App store on your chosen device, or open the Play store and search “ANZCA CPD APP”. You will see this icon:

Select 'Install', then follow the instructions to download and install the app

If you’re having trouble downloading, click visit the Google Play help website.

Once you’ve downloaded the app, click on 'Open' or open directly from the icon. Use your college credentials to log in.

Still having trouble? Contact the CPD team

The CPD App can be accessed offline, however you need to be connected to the internet or roaming to record your activity, and to access a breakdown of your completed hours and activities. Flight mode is unsupported.

The CPD App has been designed to work on mobile phones to increase the accessibility of your CPD program and allow an ‘on the go’ approach to data entering. When using a laptop or tablet, we recommend you continue to use the web-based CPD Portfolio as it will provide the best experience.

No, you can only use one at a time. If you access both at the same time you will be logged out and asked to enter your credentials again.

Log out of the app and log in again to refresh your profile and recognise your fellowship.

In the CPD App go to: Resources > Help & support > ‘App Support Video’.

Some features in the CPD Portfolio are not yet ready:

Past CPD cycle summary and evidence.
CPD Plan, Statements and Certificates.
CPD Evaluation.
Adding multiple photos at once.

We are working on having these features available soon.

Further information

Got a question we haven't covered off in the FAQs? Our CPD team is on hand to help.

Email: [email protected]
Call: +61 (0)3 9510 6299
Hours: 9am-5pm AEST/AEDT, Monday-Friday (excluding public and college holidays).