Previous Projects
Medical Deans conducts projects either on behalf of their members or other organisations. Below is a list of projects that have been completed together with the final reports.
Clinical Supervision Support Partnership (CSSP) Program funded by Health Workforce Australia
November 2013
This project was a joint initiative of Medical Deans Australia and New Zealand, Confederation of Postgraduate Medical Education Councils (CPMEC) and Committee of Presidents of Medical Colleges (CPMC).
The project promoted supervisory best practice in the provision of clinical oversight and educational supervision of medical students, pre-vocational and vocational trainees in clinical environments. This occurred in a series of supervision workshops and a Supervision Summit.
Competencies Projects
October 2009 – March 2014
Medical Deans conducted a series of projects benchmarking of academic standards and examining the role of competencies and outcomes based education in clinical training.
Stage 1 – Developing a Framework of Competencies for Medical Graduate Outcomes funded by the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing.
In 2009 the Australian Medical Council (AMC) had 40 attributes of a medical graduate. Of these 40 attributes 30 were successfully defined into Student Learning Outcomes. Using the Student Learning Outcomes to create competencies which relied on clinical placements the Framework of Competencies for Medical Graduate Outcomes.
Stage 2 – Medical Graduate Competencies Framework funded by Health Workforce Australia.
This stage identified the common diagnostic and procedural requirements for the medical graduate and specified the level of achievement of these skills. These requirements build on Stage 1 to establish a framework of competencies using the attributes required by the Australian Medical Council of a medical graduate as the anchor point. These diagnostic and procedural skills were then mapped to the relevant sections of the Australian Curriculum Framework for Junior Doctors to aid vertical integration and to improve transparency in clinical education.
Stage 3 – Developing a National Assessment Blueprint for Clinical Competencies for the Medical Graduate funded by Health Workforce Australia.
A suite of clinical assessment blueprints for the medical graduate were developed providing a unique snapshot of clinical assessment occurring in all Australian and New Zealand medical schools in 2013.
Harmonisation of Clinical Assessment Tools funded by Health Workforce Australia.
June 2013
The project used a pilot site to develop and evaluated a harmonised clinical assessment tool for assessments which occur in the second half of a medical program where multiple medical schools share the same clinical training site. The site used was the University Centre for Rural Health, Lismore which is a clinical training site shared by the University of Sydney, Western Sydney University and University of Wollongong.
National Review of Clinical Training Requirements for Medical Students
July 2008
Medical Deans was commissioned by the Commonwealth Department of Health to Review Clinical Training Requirements for Medical Students.
The review assessed the impact on the provision of quality clinical training during a period of rapid expansion in both the number of medical schools and medical students. It concluded that if medical schools were to provide quality and sustainable clinical training for their students, a number of barriers to expanding capacity needed to be overcome. There was an additional report to further review areas of concern.