Library resource guides: CPD for clinical support roles: I examine

Guide index

Key areas to consider in planning your CPD include:

Learning and growing as an assessor, including your professional supports and networks
Enhancing your understanding of assessment fundamentals, assessment methods and how to ensure their quality
Developing and evaluating the performance of assessments
Enhancing your communication skills, including constructive feedback conversations
Recognising and managing conflicts of interest (for example: as an examiner in your workplace or when examining)
Understanding and managing own biases
Ensuring a transparent, fair and culturally safe examination environment

Practice evaluation (category 1)

Undertake a critical reflection on your examining work and develop a plan for practice change. Potential topics for reflection include examiner trainer assessor/trainee/student feedback or integrating what you have learnt during examiner skills training into your assessment practice.
Participate in a cultural safety activitySee the Support across work roles > Providing a culturally safe practice tab for more information with a view to better understanding cultural safety and implications for your assessment practice. Following this activity, consider undertaking a critical reflection on what you have learnt and what it means for your examining practice.
As an appointed examiner for trainees or medical students. Claim time you spend on viva/OSCEs assessments under Examiner – ANZCA primary and final exams/FPM fellowship.
Formally engage with a mentor to further your professional goals for your assessment practice. Claim hours spent doing so under the mentoring activity.
Ask other examiners to provide you with multi-source feedback (clinical support), with a trusted colleague collating the feedback and discussing it with you.
Ask a colleague to complete a peer review of educational practice, observing you examining and providing feedback on the Assessment of and for learning domain. Examiner trainee assessors can also claim their observation and feedback work under peer review of educational practice.

Knowledge & skills (category 2)

Participate in exam committee work and claim this under education/research committee work.
Contribute to the development of educational resources (for example: exam preparation resources for trainees and their supervisors), including with emerging teaching and learning technologies, relevant to your scope of practice. Claim this under education development.
As an appointed examiner for trainees or medical students, time you spend participating in written examinations (for example: marking) and writing questions is claimed under Examining, including marking and writing questions.
Undertake a formal educational qualification and claim time spent doing this under formal courses.
Read peer-reviewed journals relevant to your assessment practice (see key areas to consider) Learning and growing as an assessor, including your professional supports and networks; Enhancing your understanding of assessment fundamentals, assessment methods and how to ensure their quality; Developing and evaluating the performance of assessments; Enhancing your communication skills, including constructive feedback conversations; Recognising and managing conflicts of interest; Understanding and managing own biases; Ensuring a transparent, fair and culturally safe examination environment and claim this as journal reading.
Attend face-to-face or virtual learning sessions relevant to your assessment practice (for example: conferences, podcasts, webinars; see key areas to considerLearning and growing as an assessor, including your professional supports and networks; Enhancing your understanding of assessment fundamentals, assessment methods and how to ensure their quality; Developing and evaluating the performance of assessments; Enhancing your communication skills, including constructive feedback conversations; Recognising and managing conflicts of interest; Understanding and managing own biases; Ensuring a transparent, fair and culturally safe examination environment). Claim time spent doing this under learning sessions.

The college welcomes suggestions on additional resources and topics for CPD on examining.

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.

ANZCA: Medical Education Library Guide
This guide has been designed for medical personnel and educators interested in medical education to locate relevant resources on this topic, including those available through the ANZCA library.
ANZCA: Roles in Practice - Communicator Library Guide
This guide contains informative, accessible and diverse training resources, including those available through the ANZCA library, to support communication activities that help establish rapport, trust, and ethical therapeutic relationships with patients and their families.
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.

Unconscious Bias Toolkit by Dr Louisa Lowes FANZCA and Dr Adele MacMillan FANZCA. Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists & Faculty of Pain Medicine The following toolkit, developed by the Gender Equity Sub-Committee, provides an introduction to unconscious bias. It explains how unconscious bias influences the care our patients receive and the professional endeavours of our members. It also provides strategies and resources to identify and mitigate the effects of unconscious bias.
Publication Date: 2023

External resources

Australian Medical Council (AMC) Limited: AMC Assessment Website
Designed for all stakeholders involved in assessment of learners across the continuum of medical education, this website houses resources and information to share learning and support improvement in assessment
Harvard: Project Implicit - Harvard implicit association tests
The mission of Project Implicit is to educate the public about bias and to provide a “virtual laboratory” for collecting data on the internet.