RANZCP homepage
Program guide & requirements
The RANZCP Continuing Professional Development (CPD) program provides opportunities for professional learning, a platform to record your progress and guidance to help you meet requirements set out by medical regulators.
The program is flexible, with multiple ways to meet requirements, emphasises self-directed education and focuses on practice improvement.
CPD Program guides
CPD requirements
Participants need to complete a minimum of 50 hours annually, including
| Section 1: Professional Development Plan | 2 hours | |
| Section 2: Formal Peer Review | Minimum 10 hours | 23 hours in total across these two sections |
| Section 3: Practice Improvement | Minimum 5 hours | |
| Section 4: Self-guided learning | 12.5 hours | |
| Section 5: Additional hours | 12.5 hours | |
| Total | 50 hours |
Section 3 - overview and activity guides
Learn more about what makes a CPD activity suitable for Section 3 and explore detailed explanations of selected activities.
Australian standards
- CPD requirements for medical practitioners in Australia. The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA)
- Obligations on medical practitioners [Medical Board of Australia]
- Continuing professional development registration standard [Medical Board of Australia]
- Information for participants of declared quality assurance activities [Australian Government Department of Health and Aging website]
Aotearoa New Zealand standards
- The Medical Council of New Zealand (MCNZ) sets the CPD requirements for medical practitioners in New Zealand.
- Maintain registration [Medical Council of New Zealand]
- Recertification and professional development [Medical Council of New Zealand]
- Protected Quality Assurance Activities under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 [NZ Ministry of Health]
The RANZCP is committed to addressing the longstanding and unacceptable inequities experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia, and Māori in Aotearoa New Zealand, in health outcomes and access to culturally safe mental health care. These inequities reflect the enduring impacts of colonisation, structural disadvantage, systemic racism, and barriers to appropriate and accessible services. Addressing them is central to the College’s vision of equitable mental health care and to its responsibility as a professional and system leader.
The College will advance this commitment by strengthening and sustaining the Indigenous psychiatric workforce, embedding cultural safety across training and professional practice, and ensuring its policy, advocacy and service leadership are grounded in culturally responsive and accountable approaches. This includes increasing the representation of Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and Māori peoples across College structures, strengthening education in culturally safe care, and progressing the College’s commitments through its Reconciliation Action Plan and responsibilities in relation to Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
