ONLINE COURSE + OPTIONAL LIVE SESSIONS

The Consultant Physician Role:
Navigating the Unknown of Fellowship

This online course is a practical grounding in the step up to consultant: the parts of the job no one sits you down to explain, so you start the role prepared rather than working it out alone.
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Becoming a consultant is a bigger shift than anyone really prepares you for

One day you're the registrar with a senior nearby to check your call, and the next, you're the one everyone is coming to. You're suddenly making the decisions and carrying the responsibility without the supervision you had during training. You know the medicine. But it's everything else that catches people out: the accountability, the rostering and contracts, the meetings, the service that now partly runs on you. If you've felt clinically ready and quietly unready for the rest of it, this course is built for you.

This online course is built for that transition.

Across three modules we walk you through what actually changes when you step up: the shape of the role beyond the clinical work, and how the Aotearoa New Zealand system really runs. It covers your lines of accountability and the business side of the job, through to making decisions under full responsibility and handling things when they go wrong. It's grounded in the frameworks you practise within here: your obligations under Te Tiriti and cultural safety, ACC's no-fault treatment-injury system, and the Code of Rights.

It's honest about the hard parts, impostor syndrome included, and treats the early doubt as normal rather than a sign you're not coping. And, it's shaped by consultants who've made the same move, and built it to be the course they wish they'd had.

Quick Facts

  • Price: $400 + GST (course only), or $700 + GST (course + live sessions)
  • Time: Around 7 hours of course material, self-paced
  • Live sessions: 4 sessions, 60 to 90 minutes each (optional add-on)
  • Format: Online and self-paced, on any device
  • Built for: New physicians, senior registrars approaching Fellowship, and IMGs stepping into physician roles in New Zealand

Course Contents

Module One: Thinking Like a Physician

The inner shift that comes before the structures and systems. Module One works through what changes when you step up, clinically, professionally and personally: the move from supervised trainee to accountable consultant, how your identity and relationships change, leadership in everyday practice, and the confidence and impostor syndrome that come with it.

Module Two: Job Structure and Responsibility Change

The shape of the role beyond the clinical work, the structure most new physicians are left to work out for themselves. Module Two maps the full scope of the role and your lines of accountability, how your week divides between clinical sessions and the time that supports them, rostering and competing commitments, contracts and the business side of the job, and CPD, portfolios and quality improvement.

Module Three: Transitioning to Independent Practice

The daily reality of practising under full responsibility. Module Three works through owning your clinical reasoning when the decisions are yours, managing risk, adverse events and complaints in the Aotearoa New Zealand context, practising within real system and resource limits, building the safety networks that replace the oversight of training, and using feedback and difference to keep growing.

A third of new physicians find the move from trainee to consultant difficult, and two-thirds want more support during the transition.1

It's a difficult step-up, too often ending in second-guessing, lost confidence, and higher burnout risk in the first years than it needs to be.

Our course names what’s changing plainly, and reflects how the role actually works - the realities of the Aotearoa New Zealand ward rather than theory.

1. Royal Australasian College of Physicians 2025 New Fellow Survey

Try the first two lessons, free

Begin with Module One and see what actually changes when you step up from trainee to consultant, the shift most new fellows say caught them out. You'll start with the mindset shift the role asks of you: going from having a safety net to suddenly being the safety net.

The introduction and the first two lessons are open to work through before you buy:

  • Lesson 1: From Trainee to Consultant, What Actually Changes? The real shift from supervised trainee to accountable consultant: full clinical autonomy, full accountability and becoming the safety net for those still in training, with the early self-doubt that comes with it treated as normal.
  • Lesson 2: Reshaping Professional Identity and Power. How who you are in the room changes once you're the consultant: your professional identity, how colleagues see you and what's expected of you beyond being clinically competent.


Our one-minute sign-up needs no credit card. Register, follow the prompts and start straight away.

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Online Course Only

The Consultant Physician Role: Navigating the Unknown of Fellowship

The full online course: three modules, around 7 hours, self-paced on any device. You'll work through what changes when you step up, the shape of the role beyond the clinical work and how the Aotearoa New Zealand system really runs, with reflective exercises and scenarios drawn from real practice here.

Price: $400 + GST

Online Course + Live sessions

The Consultant Physician Role: Navigating the Unknown of Fellowship

Everything in the online course, plus four live sessions with Kevin Chen. Each is a small group, kept to Kevin and no more than three clinicians including yourself. Every session runs 60 to 90 minutes, working through real cases and lived experience. The sessions are reflective and case-based, and they go beyond the course rather than repeat it.

How the live sessions work

  • Once you've enrolled, we'll be in touch to arrange a time that suits you. Sessions run Monday to Friday, between 12pm and 8pm NZT.
  • We keep groups small, so if we can't form one around everyone's availability, your sessions become one-to-one with Kevin instead. The feedback will then be more specific to you and sessions can be changed to focus on your needs. Wherever we can, we'll group you with others at the same stage.
  • These aren't mentoring sessions. They build on the modules rather than re-teach them, working through scenarios and real practice, so we'll expect you to have worked through the relevant lessons beforehand. That way the time goes on thinking them through together, not covering them again.

Price: $700 + GST

Frequently asked questions

Who is this course for?

Physicians in their first one to three years as a consultant, senior registrars approaching Fellowship, and international medical graduates stepping into physician roles in Aotearoa New Zealand. If you feel clinically ready but less sure of everything around the medicine, it's built for you.

Is this a clinical course?

No. It covers everything beyond the medicine: the accountability, the structure of the role, and how the Aotearoa New Zealand system works. Any clinical detail is there to ground the ideas in familiar situations, not to teach medicine. It's there to complement your specialty training, not replace it.

How is it delivered, and how long does it take?

Fully online and self-paced, around 7 hours across three modules. Most lessons take 20-30 minutes, so you can work through it over weeks rather than in one sitting. Your progress saves automatically, and it works on any device.

What's the difference between the two options?

The course on its own gives you all three modules and the full online content. The course with live sessions adds four small-group sessions with Kevin Chen for working through the material alongside a few others at the same stage. The online course is identical in both.

What are the live sessions?

Four small-group sessions with Kevin Chen, 60 to 90 minutes each, kept to Kevin and no more than three clinicians. They're reflective and case-based, built to complement the course rather than repeat it, and places are limited by the small group size.

How are the online sessions booked and run?

When you purchase the live sessions with the course, you'll be asked what time of the day will normally work for you between 12pm to 8pm NZT through Monday to Friday.

We'll then be in touch directly to arrange the best time for your schedule.

What if no one else can join the live sessions?

We'll strive to ensure at least one other person is able to join you in the live sessions. In the situation where we can't, and you're the only one able to join, the session will still run. It just means you'll end up doing a 1:1 session with Kevin, covering the same content but with more dedicated support and feedback for you.

Is it specific to New Zealand?

Yes. It's built around the Aotearoa New Zealand system as it actually works, including your obligations under Te Tiriti o Waitangi and cultural safety, ACC's no-fault treatment-injury system, and the Code of Rights.

Can I record it for CPD?

Yes. You can record your time as self-directed CPD, and Module Two covers CPD, portfolios and quality improvement as part of the role.

Who made it?

It's shaped with consultants who've made the same move, led by Kevin Chen as clinical lead, and reviewed by our Clinical Advisory Board during development and before release.

I trained overseas. Is it useful for me?

Yes. It's useful for international medical graduates stepping into consultant roles here, so you're learning the Aotearoa New Zealand system and the step up to consultant at the same time.

What will I come away with?

A clearer sense of the role and where you fit, and practical strategies for the parts training has less room for, so less of it is left to learn the hard way.

Our Mission

To prepare doctors for the whole role their clinical expertise has to operate within: the responsibilities, systems, judgement and relationships that shape day-to-day practice, so they step into what's next prepared and confident, and no one has to find their feet alone.

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