Fitness to practice of medical graduates: one programme’s approach
Claire Braatvedt, Phillippa Poole, Alan Merry, Des Gorman, Papaarangi Reid, Warwick Bagg
The University of Auckland introduced a Fitness to Practice (FtP) policy to the medical programme in 2005. The goal of the policy was to identify and, wherever possible, remediate students at risk of being unfit to practise after graduation. Over nearly a decade, 5.5% of students who entered the programme received FtP notifications. Most of these were isolated non-critical incidents of a professional nature, with no long-term consequences. A very small subset of students had repeated or serious concerns, underscoring the need for a longitudinal process with formal links to the local regulatory body.