Medical Board of Australia - Supervised practice requirements for specialist registration
Look up a health practitioner

Close

Check if your health practitioner is qualified, registered and their current registration status
Practitioners
Profession
Location
Please enter a search term
Help & Tips

Supervised practice requirements for specialist registration

The Board’s Registration standard: Specialist registration sets out the requirements for specialist registration, including for supervision. 

From 21 October 2024, to be eligible for specialist registration you need to have successfully completed a minimum period of six months of full-time equivalent supervised practice in the specialty, in Australia. 

The six months of full-time equivalent supervised practice in the specialty may include supervised practice in the specialty that you have already completed:

  • as part of an accredited program of study that provides an approved qualification for the specialty, or 
  • as part of the requirements of the Specialist pathway.

When considering your eligibility, the Board will consider any other periods of supervised practice you have successfully completed in the specialty in Australia.

If you have been awarded an approved qualification in the specialty, you may be exempt and not need to provide evidence of having completed six months full-time equivalent supervised practice within your specialty.

If you are not exempt, the Board may grant you specialist registration with a condition that you to complete six months of full-time equivalent supervised practice in the specialty, so you can meet this requirement.

If you need to undertake supervised practice, the Board’s Supervised practice framework applies to you.

See the Board’s Supervised practice framework page for more detail.

Workplace-based competency assessments (WBAs) for the Expedited Specialist pathway

To ensure that SIMGs on the Expedited Specialist pathway are safe, ethical and competent in their specialist practice, the supervisor will assess the SIMG’s practice against the following domains: 

  • clinical and procedural skills and knowledge
  • clinical judgment
  • communication skills
  • cultural safety
  • teamwork
  • professionalism
  • patient safety and quality of care. 

The Board requires formal assessments to be undertaken during the period of supervised practice. 

The SIMG must complete the following workplace-based competency assessments (WBAs):

  • a multi-source feedback (MSF) assessment conducted by a Board-approved provider, and 
  • one other additional assessment which must be appropriate for the specialty – choose from:
    • mini-clinical evaluation exercise (Mini-CEX)
    • direct observation of procedural skills (DOPS)
    • case-based discussion (CBD). 

You will need to specify the additional assessment to be undertaken as part of your Supervised practice plan. The assessment forms to be used are listed in the supervision templates below and are to be completed by you and your supervisor. 

A multi-source feedback assessment is an indirect observational assessment that provides evidence about the performance of a SIMG from a variety of sources. These sources may include colleagues, other co-workers (nurses, allied health) and patients. Questionnaires, completed by each of these groups, assess the individual’s performance over time, in contrast to a specific patient encounter. The MSF provider will provide a report directly to the Medical Board. The results will be shared with the SIMG and the supervisor(s).

The Board-approved MSF provider for the Expedited Specialist pathway is Client Focused Evaluations Program (CFEP). For further information on the CFEP MSF process, and to register for a MSF assessment contact CFEP.

The SIMG is responsible for the cost of the MSF.

Evidence requirements

The following documents outline the documentary evidence that you need to submit with your application for specialist registration:

Supervision templates

Please note: The following forms need to be opened using Adobe Acrobat Reader and may not display correctly in all browsers. For more information, please view the system requirements of this website.

Supervisor resources

There are resources available to assist and support supervisors while supervising and assessing SIMGs with specialist registration on the Expedited Specialist pathway.

Some examples of online resources are:

Workplace-based assessment resources  

The Australian Medical Council provides information and guides for conducting assessments in the workplace. These include:  

 
 
Page reviewed 8/11/2024
Look up a practitioner