Australian Curriculum Framework for Junior Doctors.

The Confederation of Postgraduate Medical Education Councils launched the Australian Curriculum Framework for Junior Doctors in October 2006. The curriculum framework: balances the major areas of clinical management, communication and professionalism, and highlights the importance of an integrated approach to prevocational learning and teaching; supports practice-based, opportunistic and continuous learning, and specifies performance and supervision requirements for junior doctors; and has been published in both Internet and printable versions, to make the document accessible and easily usable by junior doctors and supervisors. The implementation of the curriculum framework will be overseen by a steering group that includes representatives from key stakeholder groups, including junior doctors and medical students.

Prevocational medical training and the Australian Curriculum Framework for Junior Doctors: a junior doctor perspective.

The current system of prevocational training does not meet the needs of junior doctors because of a high administrative workload, insufficient funding for education, and a lack of centralised guidance for trainees, teachers and hospitals. The Australian Curriculum Framework for Junior Doctors is designed to identify the training objectives for the prevocational years. The Framework has the potential to improve the quality of training of junior doctors, but this depends on how well it is implemented and resourced. It is imperative that any group responsible for implementing or assessing the Framework have a representative junior doctor, among others, on its decision-making committee. Stringent accreditation of training institutions is vital to the effective implementation of the Framework. The Framework should be used to promote teaching and learning, not as a barrier to vocational training or as a check-list to complete.