Equipping our front-line managers: a national program for the Professional Development of Registrars.

When prevocational medical trainees become registrars, they have increasing responsibilities for ensuring safe, effective, and timely delivery of health care, while simultaneously performing a number of managerial and leadership roles. Registrars do not currently receive training for their roles as front-line managers, despite this being an identified need by trainees and the health care workers with whom they interact. The national program for the Professional Development of Registrars is a soundly based, well developed and successful generic program that could be applied in a wide variety of postgraduate arenas.

Australian Curriculum Framework for Junior Doctors.

The Confederation of Postgraduate Medical Education Councils launched the Australian Curriculum Framework for Junior Doctors in October 2006. The curriculum framework: balances the major areas of clinical management, communication and professionalism, and highlights the importance of an integrated approach to prevocational learning and teaching; supports practice-based, opportunistic and continuous learning, and specifies performance and supervision requirements for junior doctors; and has been published in both Internet and printable versions, to make the document accessible and easily usable by junior doctors and supervisors. The implementation of the curriculum framework will be overseen by a steering group that includes representatives from key stakeholder groups, including junior doctors and medical students.