Collegial Relationship Meetings
A collegial relationship is an on-going formal relationship between two doctors. The purpose of this relationship is to provide guidance and mentorship for doctors registered in a general scope, with the objectives of maintaining safe clinical practice and facilitating CPD.
The doctor providing collegial support 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 doctors’ patients.
Mentoring
All doctors need personal, educational and professional support throughout their careers. A collegial relationship is one way of providing such support, as the person providing the collegial relationship can offer a valuable source of mentoring. Mentoring is a type of formal social support that is important for medical professional development for both career selection and advancement.
To make the most out of the mentoring process, it is worth remembering that mentoring is a shared job. While the colleague may provide the support, the doctor must be open and receptive to the feedback, and trust the colleague to speak openly to them.
Who can provide a collegial relationship?
The person providing the collegial relationship needs to be vocationally registered in the same or similar scope of practice to the doctor. Doctors still in vocational training, or waiting for their change of scope to be registered by the Medical Council, are not eligible to provide the collegial relationship.
Ideally the person providing the collegial relationship should have certain characteristics, such as:
- A diverse background and interests that are similar to the doctor
- A good rapport with colleagues and peers
- An open mind and commitment to ongoing education
- Knowledge in the area of interests of the doctor
It is preferred that a collegial relationship is established between two doctors who are based in the same geographic location. If this is not possible, the relationship may be set up at a distance. If face to face meetings are not always possible, the meetings can be supplemented by interactive meetings using the telephone or video conferencing.
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.
Below you’ll find a list of suggested topics to guide the content of your collegial relationship meetings.
Many of these suggestions focus on activities recorded within the doctor’s ePortfolio, therefore it will be useful to have access to the internet during meetings
Topic suggestions:
- Professional development plan
- Reviewing colleague feedback
- Reviewing peer review activities
- Reviewing continuing medical education (CME) activities
- Regular practice review visit
- Audit
- Discussions of non-clinical issues
- Self care and career planning
- Peer relationships
- Future planning, including moving to vocational training or planning retirement
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)