Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians

Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, abbreviated as the post-nominal initials FRACP, is a recognition of the completion of the prescribed postgraduate specialist training programme in internal adult or internal paediatric medicine of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians.

The fellowship training programme requires that prospective trainees are registered medical practitioners in Australia and/or New Zealand. Specifically, prospective trainees must have completed a medical degree; completed an intern year; been appointed to an accredited hospital by the College for basic training; discussed their application with, and received approval from, the accredited hospital or a Director of Physician Education. International medical graduates must complete the Australian Medical Council Certificate in addition to the aforementioned requirements.

Multiple pathways lead to fellowship, but all pathways require significant amount of training, time and commitment and consist of three main stages:

The qualification of FRACP is awarded for training programmes in adult internal medicine and in paediatrics and child health. Both programmes have a similar structure, but the content and examinations are accordingly different.

Basic training consists of a series of 36 months of accredited hospital posts, approved by local directors of physician training. These posts encompass a variety of medical specialties; emergency medicine; and tertiary centre, regional, and rural hospital rotations.

The programme must contain prescribed proportions of the aforementioned areas and locations and is assessed by ongoing continuous assessment by the candidate's supervising physicians.

The basic training, formally the Royal Australasian College of Physicians's Physician Readiness for Expert Practice (PREP), is approximately equivalent to the residency program in the United States or core medical training programme in the United Kingdom.

After 24 months of basic training, trainees become eligible to sit the external RACP examinations. These consist of a written and a clinical examination. The written examination consists of multiple-choice questions and is held only once a year in March. The clinical examination, consisting of two long cases and four short cases, is examined by two assessors (per case) and are held in July, after successful completion of the written exam. Both examinations must be successfully completed before a trainee may progress to advanced training.

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