Group 1, 2, and 3 CPD for Australian pharmacists, explained

The Pharmacy Board of Australia weights CPD activities across three groups, each with a different "credit" multiplier. Group 3 activities are worth more per hour than Group 2, which are worth more than Group 1. The Board's registration standard sets a minimum number of credits, not just a flat number of hours — meaning a year heavy on Group 1 activities may not meet the standard even if you've clocked the hour total.

Here's how the groups work.

The three groups

Group 1 — knowledge. Activities that involve gaining or refreshing knowledge without explicit application or evaluation. Reading a journal article, attending a didactic lecture, completing a knowledge-only quiz, listening to a podcast. The lowest credit weighting per hour.

Group 2 — application. Activities where you actively engage with the content and apply it to your practice. Case-based learning with reflection, in-services where you actively participate in discussion, structured workshops where you practise a skill. Mid-range credit weighting.

Group 3 — evaluation and quality improvement. Activities where you assess the outcomes of changes to your practice — clinical audit applied to your own dispensing patterns, evaluation of a workflow change you've implemented, structured peer-review of your patient counselling with feedback. The highest credit weighting per hour.

The Group definitions track exactly the same logical progression as the RACGP's EA → RP → MO categories: knowledge in, dialogue/application, outcomes-evaluation. The Pharmacy Board chose to make the weighting explicit via credits rather than via category minimums.

Why the weighting matters

The Pharmacy Board's standard doesn't just say "do X hours". It says "earn X credits", where credits per hour vary by group. That means:

40 hours of Group 1 reading isn't equivalent to 40 hours of Group 3 audit
A pharmacist who does 30 hours of Group 1 plus 10 hours of Group 3 can be at the same credit total as a pharmacist who did 80 hours of Group 1 alone

The system explicitly rewards higher-engagement activities. It's designed to push pharmacists toward applied, evaluative learning rather than passive content absorption.

Examples of clearly Group 1

Reading the latest Australian Pharmacist journal
Attending a didactic lecture at a state conference
Completing a knowledge-only AusDi or NPS MedicineWise module
Watching a webinar without participation
Listening to a clinical pharmacy podcast

Examples of clearly Group 2

Workshops with hands-on practice (e.g. inhaler-technique workshops you actually run through)
Case-based learning with structured reflection on application
In-services where you actively present or engage in discussion
PSA online courses that include applied exercises, not just reading
Structured peer-review of a colleague's counselling

Examples of clearly Group 3

Clinical audit of your own dispensing patterns against guidelines
Evaluation of a counselling intervention you've implemented (e.g. tracking adherence outcomes for a chronic-disease cohort you counsel)
Audit of medication-review outcomes you've delivered
Quality-improvement projects where you measure pre/post outcomes
A practice-change project with measured impact

The shared feature of Group 3 is measurement. You're not just doing something differently; you're checking whether the change produced the outcome you intended.

Planning a credit-rich year

A pattern that meets the credit minimum without burning a Saturday:

Group 3 backbone (3-5 hours, ~20-40% of credit total): one substantive clinical audit per year — anticoagulation review, medication-review outcomes, opioid-stewardship audit
Group 2 mid-year (8-12 hours): two or three applied workshops or case-based learning programs
Group 1 fill-in (10-15 hours): journal reading, podcasts, didactic content you do anyway

Front-loading the year with one Group 3 audit pays off hugely. Most pharmacists could meet the credit minimum with one Group 3 audit plus modest Group 2 / 1 activity, but they default to Group 1 because it's frictionless.

How PracticaCPD tags credits

Pick "Pharmacist" as your profession on sign-up. The activity form asks for the Group on every entry. The dashboard shows total credits (hours × group multiplier) and the per-group split, so you see whether your credit total is on track at any point in the year.