Projects & Activities

The final report for Stage 1 of the Competencies Project is available here

In 2010, Medical Deans received funding from the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing to undertake the Competencies Project. The aim of the project is to identify and document competencies from the Australian Medical Council (AMC) 40 attributes of a medical graduate which rely on clinical placements.

The project aimed to facilitate improvements in the quality and vertical integration of medical education and training. The Confederation of Postgraduate Medical Education Councils (CPMEC) is a key stakeholder and this relationship is essential to facilitate the vertical integration of clinical training across medical school and internship programs.

Other stakeholders for this project include:

• Medical schools (including Deans)
• Medical students, especially the Australian Medical Students’ Association (AMSA)
• Junior doctors, especially AMA– Doctors in Training (AMACDT)
• Australian Medical Council (AMC)
• Commonwealth and jurisdictions
• Health Workforce Australia
• Medical Colleges

The Competencies Project yielded significant results in 2010. Thirty of the AMC graduate attributes were successfully
delineated into Student Learning Outcomes and then competencies which rely on clinical placements to produce a Framework of Competencies for Medical Graduate Outcomes.

Other key outcomes of the project included:

• defining the current competence – based medical education environment
• the development of the Attributes Spectrum
• the development of an interactive framework utilising the eight common clinical rotations identified in the Medical Deans’ National Clinical Training Review report
• the introduction of lists of common procedural and diagnostic skills
• the development of an interactive Framework of Competencies for Medical Graduate Outcomes

As of March, 2011, the project will transition to a second phase funded by Health Workforce Australia. The key focus of stage two will be to develop lists of common diagnostic and procedural skills for the medical graduate. The intended benefits of this stage include:

• this will be the first time that this information will be collated enabling the input from medical schools across Australia and New Zealand.
•  once refined and endorsed, this work will identify the diagnostic and procedural competencies of medical graduates.
• a useful resource for health service providers as the lists will identify the skills of a medical graduate irrespective of the medical program which the student has undertaken.
• a teaching resource for clinical supervisors for medical students in clinical placements.
• alignment of common diagnostic and procedural skills of a medical graduate to the ACFJD which will facilitate
  vertical integration between medical schools and the learning that occurs in the post graduate years.

Stage two is due for completion in December 2011.