Entrustable professional activities (EPAs)

About EPAs

EPAs are summative assessments used in the RANZCP Fellowship Program. EPAs are used to measure competence in the activities of psychiatric practice. Each EPA corresponds to a specific activity, for example 'Care for a patient with delirium', or 'Use of an antipsychotic medication in a patient with schizophrenia/psychosis'.

Attaining an EPA shows that a supervisor can trust a trainee to perform that activity with only distant (reactive) supervision.

Trainees must attain particular EPAs in each stage of the Fellowship Program. EPAs can be attained at any time during a rotation, whenever the supervisor is confident that the trainee can be trusted to perform the task with only distant (reactive) supervision. 

Particular EPAs are required for progression through training. A minimum of two EPAs must be attained for every 6-month FTE rotation.

Some EPAs are mandatory for all trainees, whereas others will only be attained if a trainee undertakes an elective rotation in a particular area of practice. Some EPAs must be attained during particular rotations, while others can be attained during a rotation in any area of practice.

See the full list of EPAs available.

More information on which EPAS must be attained in each stage of training can be found on:

Stage 1 assessments and requirements
Stage 2 assessments and requirements
Stage 3 assessments and requirements

EPA handy tips [PDF; 180 KB]

Concept

EPAs don't cover every professional activity that a psychiatrist engages in. Generally, the activities selected as EPAs have been chosen because they are tasks that:

• are important in daily psychiatric practice
• are high-risk or error-prone tasks, or
• are tasks that relate to a number of major roles that a psychiatrist plays.

WBAs and EPAs

Supervisors use Workplace-based Assessment tools, together with other information, to assess whether trainees can attain a particular EPA. A minimum of three WBAs are used when assessing each EPA.

Supervisors also draw on other available data, including information from other staff or sources.

Completing three WBAs does not necessarily result in attainment of an EPA. WBAs and EPAs are not directly linked in this way. Rather, a supervisor considers the trainee’s performance in their WBAs, along with other evidence, when deciding whether a trainee has attained an EPA.

Attainment

An EPA is attained when a trainee:

• can demonstrate the knowledge, skills and attitude required of the task
• knows when to ask for additional help
• can be trusted to seek assistance in a timely manner.

EPAs can only be entrusted once, therefore an EPA cannot be repeated after it has been attained.

Administration

The assessor of an EPA can be someone other than the trainee's principal supervisor, provided that they are a College-accredited supervisor. 

For each EPA, the trainee and entrusting supervisor complete an EPA Confirmation of Entrustment (COE) form in InTrain. The trainee’s Director of Training will also sign the COE form. If the entrusting supervisor isn't the trainee's principal supervisor, the principal supervisor will sign the form as well.

Trainees are responsible for retaining the COE forms. Attainment of each EPA will be recorded on the trainee’s end of rotation In-Training Assessment (ITA) Form for that rotation.

EPA tables and handbook

EPA Handbook – Stage 1 and 2 [PDF; 986 KB]

Stage 1 and 2 EPAs table [PDF; 213 KB]

Stage 3 EPAs table [PDF; 213 KB]

See a list of all available EPAs.