The Australian Medical Council (AMC) National Framework for Prevocational (PGY1 and PGY2) Medical Training has been developed to support medical graduates to achieve their career goals to ensure safe, high quality care for healthcare consumers and will be implemented for PGY1 doctors in 2024. Training and assessment requirements for prevocational trainees includes:
- All prevocational doctors to have beginning of term discussions.
- Mid and end of term assessments using the revised Term Assessment Form.
- Achievement of the AMC Prevocational Outcome Statements.
- Point of general registration remains at satisfactory completion of PGY1.
- Prevocational doctors completing training within the Framework will be exempt from Medical Board of Australia’s new CPD requirements.
Optional activity in 2024:
- The introduction of Entrustable Professional Activity (EPA) assessments is a new requirement for assessment of prevocational trainees as a result of the development of the Framework.
- While EPA assessments will not be a requirement for satisfactory completion until 2025, Local Health Networks (LHNs) may choose to rollout some paper-based EPA assessments in 2024 to increase opportunities for feedback.
- Prevocational doctors must complete at least two EPAs per term, equating to ten EPA assessments within a 12-month period.
The PGY1 Guide to Prevocational Training PowerPoint Presentation provides further information about the Framework and the impacts on prevocational doctors. The recording of the presentation is available below.
Interstate and rural employment
The new Framework will not impact prevocational doctors opportunities to work interstate or in rural areas. For example, a prevocational doctor could complete their internship in metropolitan Victoria and apply to a rural hospital in South Australia for PGY2 or vice versa. This is also applicable to prevocational doctors working in different Local Health Networks (LHNs) in PGY1 and PGY2 in South Australia.
Term requirements and structure
Under the new Framework, interns must complete a minimum of four 10 week terms across the clinical patient care categories. This replaces the core term requirements for general surgery, general medicine and emergency medicine under the previous framework. Some Local Health Networks (LHNs) may decide to change the structure of their rotations from five rotations a year to four.
Specialist training
Entry into a specialist training program is permitted during PGY2 where the college allows.
Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs)
The supervisor’s assessment of an EPA is not a pass or fail. It is a judgement of the prevocational doctor’s degree of entrustability for the work being observed and is designed for constructive feedback. Therefore, there will not be any remediation or disciplinary action following an assessment of an EPA where constructive feedback has been provided on areas for development. The purpose of EPAs and term assessments is for supervisors to discuss further areas of development which can be achieved over the prevocational training years.
Help and support
If at any time you have concerns about your personal wellbeing, workload, supervision or have witnessed or experienced bullying and harassment, it is important that you seek help. There will be a number of individuals in your LHN who have the experience and authority to help, including your Director of Clinical Training (DCT), your Medical Education Officer (MEO) or your Executive Director of Medical Services (EDMS). Alternatively, you can contact the SA MET Unit for support by emailing healthsamet@sa.gov.au.
