Locum Life and CPD: Staying on Track When You’re Always on the Move
Locum work offers freedom, variety, and the chance to see medicine in all its forms—from remote rural clinics to high-intensity urban hospitals. But there’s one thing it doesn’t offer: structure. When it comes to Continuing Professional Development (CPD), this lack of routine can catch you off guard—especially if you're not paying attention early.
Whether you're a full-time locum or picking up extra shifts between contracts, the key to staying CPD-compliant is having a plan. Without one, you’re flying blind—and more likely to find yourself in a panic come December.
Start With a Plan, Stick With a System
The most important step you can take as a locum is to develop your CPD plan early in the year. Don’t wait until your third contract or the first audit email. Lay out a rough idea of how you’ll meet the CPD Home requirements across the three categories: Educational Activities, Reviewing Performance (RP), and Measuring Outcomes (MO).
Check in regularly—monthly is ideal. If you’re using Osler, your dashboard can give you a clear breakdown of how you're tracking in real time. Without a plan, the risk of falling short is high, especially in the trickier categories.
Educational Activities: The Easy Win
This is the low-hanging fruit for most doctors, and especially for locums. The flexibility of locum work often includes travel, which gives you ready-made time for learning.
Use your car rides, flights, or layovers to:
Listen to high-quality medical podcasts.
Watch short clinical update videos.
Read journal articles or newsletters.
Attend online webinars (Osler has many, all logged automatically).
Most doctors will do 25 hours of Educational Activities, which is the maximum allowed - just don’t forget to record what you learned. Even a sentence or two helps reinforce the knowledge and gives you searchable content in your portfolio.
Reviewing Performance: Build the Habit Early
This is where many locums assume they'll struggle—but it’s more manageable than it looks. The trick is to build the habit of reflection into your month.
If you're using Osler, a monthly self-reflection logged in your portfolio gives you 0.5 hours of Reviewing Performance each time. That’s 6 hours done by year’s end with minimal effort.
Other easy RP wins include:
Logging any feedback from colleagues or patients.
Adding supervisor assessments or performance reviews (even informal ones).
Attending patient review or multidisciplinary team meetings on-site.
Including your Personal Career Development Plan (PCDP)—which gives you 3 hours automatically under RP.
With a little intention, you’ll find RP hours add up faster than you think.
Measuring Outcomes: The Tricky One
This is the most challenging category for most doctors—especially locums. But there are smart ways to make it achievable.
Osler’s patient and procedure logbook is your best friend. Every patient you log gives you 0.1 hours under Measuring Outcomes, and every procedure adds another 0.1. If you log 100 patients and 50 procedures, that’s already 15 hours of MO.
At the end of the year, spend an hour reviewing your cases for trends—anything from common diagnoses to variation in outcomes or approaches. This self-audit is also claimable as MO.
Still short? Try:
Osler’s Case Review Webinars – Each session gives 90 minutes of MO.
Local M&M meetings – If you're on-site for them, go. They’re MO gold.
Clinical governance or patient safety meetings – Often claimable as either MO or RP, depending on content.
Stay Connected, Stay Accountable
Being a locum can feel isolating—but you’re not alone. Thousands of doctors are navigating the same CPD challenges. Online communities like the Locum Doctors Australia Facebook group, Medical Peer CPD or Australian CPD Homes are great for sharing tips and accountability.
Osler is also working to create a national peer network where locum doctors can connect, reflect, and support one another. Stay tuned.
Final Thoughts: CPD That Reflects Your Real Work
Locum life doesn’t need to be a CPD disadvantage. In fact, the diversity of cases, systems, and settings offers rich opportunities for professional growth—if you take the time to capture and reflect on them.
Plan early. Review regularly. Use the tools available to you—especially when they work around your lifestyle. Osler can help, but the most important thing is your mindset: CPD isn’t something to survive. It’s something to shape around your experience.
Even when you’re always on the move.