An Outline of the Planned Work of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists' Board of Education

Abstract

The educational activities of the College are likely to evolve and to be developed over the next 5 years by a process taking account of the views of key stakeholders. In the short term, there will be no changes to training or examination processes which would disadvantage trainees.

Trajectory to fellowship: an analysis of the current pathway to becoming a psychiatrist

“…6 Significant efforts, informed by best-practice medical education approaches, have been devoted to ensuring the rigour and reliability of examinations in the current training program, including the introduction of blue-printing, 14 criterion-referenced marking, standardsetting and examiner training. 12 Examinations represent potential barriers to trainee progression, but outcomes (Table 2) approach the international benchmarks and a proposed target of at least an 80% first-attempt pass rate 9 for each assessment. However, while a substantial number of these trainees did attain Fellowship, only a small number also successfully completed the APAT to achieve the desired sub-specialisation certification (Table 3).…”

“…11 The need for quality, sustainable mental health services in Australasia provides the impetus to understand the pathway toward becoming a psychiatrist. This quality assurance study evaluates existing data on the progression and outcomes of psychiatry training, with respect to a number of key factors driving the introduction [7][8][9] and subsequent continuous improvement 12 6 and the trainees studied had reached or exceeded the 5-year minimum time to attain Fellowship. Trainees were excluded from this study if they were allowed any retrospective accreditation.…”

Sustainability of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists exams

“…In most recent years, the College examination system has been criticised for low pass rates, plus questionable validity and reliability of certain sections. 4,5 An Australian Medical Council review and constant feedback from training sites have made reference to the enormous time and dollar costs contributed to the training processes. That is represented in trainee clinical work ‘downtime’ and by extensive participation of College Fellows in examination-related activities.…”

The Low Pass Rate in the RANZCP Clinical Examinations: Is the Exam the Problem?

“…As noted by Adler, ‘Such pass rates would be a cause for critical review in any other higher educational setting with questions asked about the quality of teaching and the expectations of the examination’ [3]. To date the quality of the examinations has been the focus of attention [14]. Less scrutiny has been directed at ‘the quality of teaching’ and ‘expectations of the examination’.…”