Library resource guides: CPD for clinical support roles: Planning and managing career transitions

Guide index

Key areas to consider in planning your CPD include:

Transitioning to specialist practice
Relocation of practice
Returning to practice following prolonged absence
Changes in scope of practice
Transitioning to retirement

Practice evaluation (category 1)

Undertake an annual structured conversation/performance appraisal with your head of department/practice, manager or a trusted colleague including on your planned career transition to review your professional activities, development needs, learning goals and plans for the following year.
Undertake a critical reflection on your current or planned career transition and develop a plan for practice change. The critical reflection guideline includes questions to ask yourself to consider your planning. See the resources section for reflection topics.
Formally engage with a mentor to further your professional goals for your career transition. Claim hours spent doing so under the mentoring activity.
Participate in a peer support group of self-selected peers with expertise and interest in similar career transitions or who have been through such transitions already. Potential areas of focus for the group include shared opportunities, challenges and solutions. See resources to support selection of peer support group discussion topics.

Knowledge & skills (category 2)

Read peer-reviewed journals or other resources relevant to your planned career transition, and claim this as journal reading.
Attend face-to-face or virtual learning sessions relevant to your career transition (for example: conferences, podcasts, webinars; see key areas to considerTransitioning to specialist practice; Relocation of practice; Returning to practice following prolonged absence; Changes in scope of practice; Transitioning to retirement). Claim time spent doing this under learning sessions.

The college welcomes suggestions on additional resources and topics for CPD on planning and managing career transitions.

ANZCA & FPM resources

CPD Activity Guide
This guide contains a list of all the activities associated with the ANZCA and FPM CPD Program, as well as links to associated individual activity guides and forms.
PG50(A) Guideline on return to anaesthesia practice for anaesthetists 2017.
This guideline is intended to advise anaesthetists whose absence from clinical anaesthesia practice has been sufficient to warrant a formal return to practice program. It includes a Return to Practice Plan.
PG13(PM) Guideline on return to pain medicine practice for specialist pain medicine physicians 2023 PILOT.
These guidelines are intended to advise specialist pain medicine physicians (SPMPs) whose absence from clinical pain medicine practice does require or will require a formal return to practice program.

Roberts L. Self matters: finding the right retirement fit for you. ANZCA Bulletin Summer 2022.
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Dr Lindy Roberts, ANZCA’s Director of Professional Affairs, Education explores doctors’ health by highlighting practical ways to support anaesthetists’ and pain specialists’ wellbeing and how it impacts private lives. Here she focuses on retirement and how to plan for it.
Peisah C, Luscombe GM, Earl JK, Wijeratne C. Aging women and men in the medical profession: The effect of gender and marital status on successful aging and retirement intent in Australian doctors. J Women Aging. 2019;31(2):95-107.
Note: Restricted content is accessible via the secure ANZCA E-Reserves module.
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Abstract
Despite increasing interest from the medical profession in aging and retirement, we know little about effects of gender, marital status, and cohort on aging within the profession. We surveyed 1,048 Australian doctors from "younger" (55-64) and "older" (65-89) cohorts, investigating gender and marital effects on perceptions of successful aging, career, and retirement intent. Women intend to retire earlier. Younger cohort and married women more frequently viewed their career as a calling, while women in general, and single women more frequently, endorsed personal successful aging more than men. Broader understanding of the different experiences of aging for men and women doctors is needed.
Peisah C, Gautam M, Goldstein MZ. Medical masters: A pilot study of adaptive ageing in physicians. Australas J Ageing. 2009;28(3):134-138.
Note: Restricted content is accessible via the secure ANZCA E-Reserves module.
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Abstract
Aim: To describe models of career and lifestyle options for ageing doctors that suggest adaptability to ageing and retirement.

Method: Doctors aged 60 or older from Australia, Canada and the United States (n= 25) deemed to be ageing well by peers were administered a semistructured interview to obtain demographic and qualitative data regarding lifestyle, attitudes to ageing and retirement.

Results: Emergent themes included: (i) insights into the physical and psychological vicissitudes of ageing and the effects of such on practice; (ii) the need for adaptations in working hours and choice of work; (iii) the importance of long-term retirement planning; (iv) the usefulness of a transitional phase to ease into retirement; and (v) the need to cultivate a variety of medical and non-medical pursuits and relationships early in one's career.

Conclusion: These insights might encourage doctors to engage in long-term occupational, familial, social and financial planning and provide potential models of adaptive ageing in doctors for further study.

ANZCA: Wellbeing Library Guide
ANZCA Library has compiled a list of support resources relevant to the general wellbeing of medical practitioners.
ANZCA: Keeping Current Library Guide
This guide contains resources that medical professionals can use to keep up-to-date with current articles, research, trends and networking opportunities, including the setting up of personalised journal alerts.

ANZCA: Doctors' Health and Wellbeing
ANZCA's dedicated Doctors' health and wellbeing page, which outlines the Doctors' Health and Wellbeing Framework, as well as other resources to support doctors and integrate supportive mechanisms within organisations.
ANZCA: Information for new fellows
This covers everything you need to know as a new fellow, from being presented at the college ceremony and finding your regional representative to building your professional networks.
ANZCA: Transitioning to retirement
Find out what you need to do when considering retirement, the benefits available to retired fellows, and the opportunities to retain your involvement in the college.

External resources

Too Young to Be Old: Love, Learn, Work, and Play as You Age by Nancy K. Schlossberg More so than ever before, the question is on our minds: How do I age well? In this accessible and upbeat guide, Schlossberg builds on the concepts she pioneered in her smash hits Retire Smart, Retire Happy and Revitalizing Retirement with an engaging take on positive aging. Looking at the basic issues of aging - health, finances, and relationships - readers will learn to think about and develop a deliberate plan to age happily.
ISBN: 9781433827495
Publication Date: 2017-04-01

Is there an external resource you’d like to recommend for this section? If so, let us know!