Timeframe for review:                 Every two years, or earlier if required

Document authorisation:            Council of Education

Document implementation:        CPD Committee / CPD Manager

Document maintenance:             General Manager, Governance and Standards

Copyright

2022. Australasian College for Emergency Medicine. All rights reserved.

The Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM/the College) conducts a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) program to ensure medical practitioners practicing in the field of emergency medicine maintain and improve their knowledge and skills as applicable to their professional practice.  The program is designed to meet the requirements of the Medical Board of Australia and the Medical Council of New Zealand for the purposes of individual practice.

The purpose of this policy is to outline the method by which organisations providing CPD activities may apply to have those activities approved for the purposes of the ACEM CPD program. As part of this process, the College maintains an online library of approved CPD activities in order to:

• Recognise and promote the conduct of approved CPD activities appropriate to Emergency Medicine
• Simplify the recording of approved activities for Fellows’ and members’ individual records
• Promote exemplary standards of practice in Emergency Medicine through CPD.

2. Terminology

ACEM/the College

means the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine.

College member

means a person admitted as a member of the College pursuant to the provisions of the ACEM Constitution and associated regulations.

Term

insert definition text as appropriate.

Term

insert definition text as appropriate.

Term

insert definition text as appropriate.

The following elements are required in order for an activity to be approved by ACEM for the purposes of the CPD program:

• Activities align to one or more domains of the ACEM Curriculum Framework
• Activities contain a proportion of content relevant to Emergency Medicine 
• Educational activities and learning outcomes are clearly stated
• Participants’ needs are taken into consideration
• Activities are evidence-based
• Clinical and ethical standards are maintained throughout
• Face-to-face activities include adequate time for interaction and discussion
• Participants evaluate and provide feedback on the approved activity
• Participants are issued with a certificate of completion/attendance, which clearly states the name of the participant along with the name and date/duration of the activity

4. Applications for Approval

4.1 Application process

Providers wishing to apply to have an activity or event approved for the purpose of the ACEM CPD program must: 

• Ensure the application is submitted on the appropriate application form, including payment of the applicable application fee and all information and documentation specified therein provided
• Clearly outline the proportion (in hours) of the activity that is relevant to Emergency Medicine
• Pay the applicable application fee [The application fee may be waived in certain circumstances including where the provider is a registered charity, not-for-profit organisation, or working pro-bono]
• Agree to provide the following within 10 working days of the approved activity taking place:

• • ACEM CPD Activity Approval Evaluation
  • List of participating ACEM CPD Participants.

Refer also section 3.4 (below).

4.2 Application Outcome

The CPD Committee will determine whether the application is approved or rejected. The CPD Committee shall approve any application which meets the requirements of this policy. The CPD Committee reserves the right to reject an application which does not meet the requirements of this policy. The CPD Committee may, at its discretion, refer to subject matter experts such as ACEM committees and other entities, in the course of assessing an application.

The provider of an approved activity must advise the College of any significant changes to the program content of the approved activity and submit an application for re-assessment of the activity.  A change to matters such as duration of the activity, date of activity, mode of delivery etc. must also be advised to the College.

4.3 Application assessment

For all approved applications the College will determine:

• the Category and Activity Type of the ACEM CPD Program(s) in which the approved activity falls; and
• the hours and minutes for which the activity is approved, excluding registration and any recreational components.

4.4 Duration of approval

The duration of one-off activities remain valid until the date of completion of the activity.

Activities that occur more than once in a CPD year are deemed ‘ongoing activities.’ The approval of ongoing activities remains valid until the end of the applicable CPD year. A new application for approval of ongoing activities occurring in a subsequent year(s) must be submitted each CPD year.

The CPD Committee reserves the right to revoke approval of an activity should:

• the provider fails to provide the evaluation and participant list; or
• feedback from participants indicates that the required elements of the activity were not met;
• the College becomes aware of changes to program content and no notice of these changes has been received or a re-assessment conducted.