RACDS understands that your specialised knowledge needs to stay relevant and up to date.
Through its education programs the College is a key body tracking changing trends and directions in the profession. Ensuring your skills meet current practice standards and that you are alert to progressive research and clinical technique is part of our specialised service. Participation in our exclusive RACDS programs is suited to university post graduate study and all dental careers including private practice, government health service, academia and the defence forces.
CPD Tracker
Tracking your CPD is important, as in many jurisdictions CPD is a mandatory requirement of registration. As such, activities must be recorded and retained by the individual. As of 1 July 2019, a simple and intuitive tracker is available for all Fellows and Members to use. Fellows in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (OMS) will see a customised dashboard and tracker relevant to the speciality.
CPD Offerings
The College offers a range of CPD Masterclasses throughout the year which are available to all RACDS members and non-members. Please click the button below to view what’s on.
CPD for General and Specialist Dentists
The RACDS expected commitment to CPD reflects the prestigious expertise associated with Membership and Fellowship of the College. This equates to having higher expectations from yourself and your peers regarding personal and professional development in your chosen field and communicating this achievement to your patients.
RACDS expects:
Completion of over 300 hours of CPD over a 5-year period
At least one third (100hrs) of these hours must be spent undertaking ‘verifiable’ CPD (i.e. you must have evidence to prove the CPD was undertaken/completed) and the remainder can be ‘general’ CPD.
Fellows and Members committed to the RACDS’s guideline should expect to undertake a minimum of 60 hours of CPD in a year.
Refer to the Dental Board of Australia’s Guidelines on Continuing Professional Development or the Dental Council of New Zealand website for more information on minimum CPD requirements.
Candidates enrolled in the Membership in General Dental Practice program (MRACDS(GDP)) are required to undertake a minimum of 120 verifiable hours of CPD as part of the program requirements.
CPD for Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery
The College has developed the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Program for Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (OMS) specialists to align with the CPD registration standards of the dental and medical regulatory bodies in Australia and New Zealand.
To meet the dental and medical registration standards, practicing OMS specialists must:
- meet the requirements of the RACDS CPD Program
- develop an annual professional development plan
- complete a minimum of 50 hours per year of CPD activities that are relevant to the scope of practice and individual professional development needs
- self-evaluate CPD activities at the end of the year to prepare the professional development plan for the next year
- engage in structured conversations (Category 3) about clinical practice with a peer, colleague, or employer (New Zealand practitioners only)
- retain records of annual CPD activities for audit (if randomly selected) by the College and the Board for three years after the end of each one-year cycle.
The CPD requirements remain the same regardless of whether OMS specialists practice part-time or otherwise. Fellows may be exempted from participating in certain circumstances, subject to the approval of a written application to the CPD Committee. Grounds for exemption may include Fellows on medical, parental, or carer’s leave and those with non-practising registration. Fellows in this category should refer to the relevant regulatory authority regarding meeting their CPD requirements.
Please refer to the OMS CPD Standard and OMS CPD Mandatory Compliance Policy for further information.
Practicing OMS specialists must undertake a minimum of 50 hours of CPD activities per year aligned with the RACDS CPD Framework (refer to Appendix 1 of the OMS CPD Standard):
- at least 12.5 hours in educational activities
- at least 25 hours in activities focused on reviewing performance and measuring outcomes, with a minimum of five hours for each category, and
- the remaining 12.5 hours, and any CPD activities over the 50-hour minimum across any of these types of CPD activity.
Participants must log the required CPD activities and complete a professional development plan in My OMS CPD Home (online tracker) by 28 February of the following year to download a Certificate of CPD Compliance for the previous calendar year. The Statement of Participation and a Transcript of CPD Activities are available throughout the year.
Participants may appeal decisions on compliance or exemption by the CPD Committee and Board of Studies within 30 days of notification, subject to the RACDS Reconsideration, Review and Appeals Policy.
Non-OMS Fellows can enrol in the RACDS CPD Program by paying the annual fee.
Please refer to the OMS CPD Guide for Participants and My OMS CPD Home User Guide for further information.
Organisations or individuals can seek College approval for their CPD activities if they meet the following criteria:
- Learning objectives are clearly defined and are relevant to the scope of practice of a specialist Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon
- The activity promotes a high standard of clinical and ethical care
- The learning environment allows participants to meet the objectives of the course
- A process for evaluating the activity against the learning objectives is established
- Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons have been involved in developing and conducting the activity where feasible
- Suitable evidence for verification of attendance can be provided for each participant,
To apply for approval of CPD activity, please pay the fee via the RACDS website and email the completed application form (FOMS 19) to omsfellow@racds.org. The CPD Committee will review the application and notify the outcome within four weeks.
Fellows who encounter challenges in meeting the CPD requirements must contact the College for assistance promptly.
If you have any enquiries, please email the OMS Education Officer at omsfellow@racds.org or by phone at +61 2 9262 6044.