Collegial Meetings
The purpose of the collegial relationship is to ensure that the doctor’s professional development plan (PDP) and continuing professional development (CPD) activities are appropriate and that the doctor is not working in professional isolation.
Requirement
InPractice requires all doctors participating in the programme to establish and maintain a collegial relationship with a vocationally registered colleague working in the same or similar scope of practice to that in which the doctor usually works.
Maintaining the collegial relationship is defined as the doctor and colleague having four interactive meetings annually.
Meetings may be conducted face-to-face or at a distance (e.g. teleconference, video phone). The key requirement is that they are simultaneously interactive; email exchanges for example do not meet the requirements.
Description
Colleagues should be a role model of good medical practice, a sounding board for the doctor and a resource in times of difficulty. It is important to note that the collegial relationship is not a supervisory relationship and colleagues are not required to supervise a doctor’s practice. Neither is the colleague responsible or liable for a doctors clinical decisions, unless the colleague has been directly involved in the care of the doctor’s patients.
The doctor is responsible for maintaining the collegial relationship. This means they are required to:
- Organise meetings, and
- Ensure adequate records of the meetings with their colleague are recorded in their ePortfolio
The responsibilities of the colleague providing the collegial relationship are to:
- Be available for meetings
- Ensure the doctor is not professionally isolated
- Review, with the doctor, the appropriateness of the activities recorded in the doctors ePortfolio
- Assist the doctor to review feedback on their practice
To support the colleague in meeting these responsibilities, Inpractice will provide the colleague with independent access to the doctor’s ePortfolio, allowing them to review the doctor’s progress at their convenience. Inpractice also provides a collegial relationship interaction guide including advice on establishing successful mentoring relationships.
Support from the Inpractice medical advisors will be available for colleagues experiencing difficulties with, or having concerns about, the doctor they are acting as a colleague for.
Standard for completion
Doctors registered in a general scope of practice must record in their ePortfolio a minimum of four collegial relationship meetings per annum. Ideally, these meetings occur at regular intervals throughout the course of the year.
Quality standard
A record of each collegial relationship meeting should contain the following information:
- Date
- Type of interaction
- Topics discussed
- Notes from the meeting
- Comments from the colleague (optional)