The eight Domains of Good Professional Practice are the Medical Council's competency framework for doctors: Patient Safety and Quality of Patient Care, Relating to Patients, Communication and Interpersonal Skills, Collaboration and Teamwork, Management (including Self-Management), Scholarship, Professionalism and Clinical Skills. Under the 2025 framework, your recorded CPD must cover each domain at least once in a three-year period.
Key points
- The domains are written into law as the Schedule to S.I. No. 176 of 2025.
- The coverage rule is three-yearly, not annual. You do not need all eight every PCS year, but none can be left out for three years.
- Domains are tags on activities, not a separate category of credits. They sit alongside the annual 50-hour requirement and its four categories.
- A single well-chosen activity, such as a significant event review or a multisource feedback exercise, can legitimately carry two or three domains.
- Clinical Skills is the one domain defined by your specialty: its standards are set by your Postgraduate Training Body.
Where the eight domains come from, and what changed in 2025
The domains are not new. They were already set out in Appendix 1 of the Medical Council's original Rules for the Maintenance of Professional Competence, made on 18 January 2011, under the same eight headings used today. Those 2011 Rules were revoked and replaced by the Medical Council (Maintenance of Professional Competence) Rules 2025, which came into operation on 1 May 2025. Rule 4(2)(a) requires the Council's Guidelines to include a framework that incorporates "the eight domains of good professional practice set out in the Schedule".
Behind them sits section 94 of the Medical Practitioners Act 2007, which places a personal duty on every registered medical practitioner to maintain professional competence on an ongoing basis. The Council's Maintenance of Professional Competence Guidelines (May 2025) describe the domains as "a structure of competencies applicable to all doctors" from training through to maintaining competence.
What changed in 2025 was the shift from advice to obligation:
| Framework | What it said about the domains |
|---|---|
| 2011 framework | Registered medical practitioners "should refer to the Eight Domains of Good Professional Practice" throughout the process of maintaining competence. |
| 2025 framework (from 1 May 2025) | Registered medical practitioners "must cover each of the Eight Domains of Good Professional Practice at least once in a three-year period". |
The 9th Edition of the Guide to Professional Conduct and Ethics, effective from 1 January 2024, also sets the domains out in its Appendix A. For PCS enrolment, the 50-hour requirement and how our courses fit, see our Medical Council CPD overview.
The PCS three-year domain rule, read carefully
The operative sentence is in Section 7C of the Guidelines: "A doctor's CPD must cover each of the eight domains of good professional practice at least once in a three-year period." It adds that "Training Bodies will be able to advise doctors on how best to achieve this". The Council's professional competence page phrases the same duty as "Assign all eight Domains of Good Professional Practice at least once in every 3 years".
What the rule does say
- It applies to CPD as recorded on your Training Body's electronic platform; activity not recorded there "will be disregarded" at verification.
- It sits on top of the annual requirements. Each scheme year (1 May to 30 April) you still need at least 50 hours: up to 5 hours of planning (your PDP), and, if you practise medicine in Ireland, at least 10 hours of practice review, 15 hours of work-based learning and 20 hours of accredited CPD.
- Domains carry no hours of their own; a tag describes what the hours were about.
What the rule does not say
The Guidelines do not say when the first three-year period starts, whether it is fixed or rolling, or what follows if a domain is missing. Nor should it be confused with persistent non-compliance in Section 9, which means not meeting the annual requirements "for a period of three continuous years". The safe working assumption is to show all eight within any three consecutive PCS years, and to ask your scheme how it reads the window. Falling short on annual totals is a separate issue, covered in our guide to PCS non-compliance and exemptions.
Regulator requirement versus good practice
The requirement is each domain at least once in three years. Spreading or balancing domains every year is sensible planning, not a rule.
What are the eight domains? Official wording, meaning and CPD ideas
Each card below quotes the descriptor from the Schedule to S.I. No. 176 of 2025, the legally binding text. A few of the "examples include" topics from Appendix B of the Guidelines are quoted. The CPD ideas are our suggestions; your scheme decides how any activity is categorised.
Patient Safety and Quality of Patient Care
"Patient safety and quality of patient care should be at the core of the health service delivery that a doctor provides."
What it means: accountability for safe, good-quality care to your professional body, the organisation you work in, the Medical Council and your patients, with the patient treated as a partner in decisions. The Guidelines' examples include "keeping records", "prescribing drugs or treatment", "treating people in emergencies" and "cultural competence".
Example CPD: a significant event review; re-auditing a prescribing standard; reflecting on an M&M case.
Matching courseHuman Factors and Patient Safety (3 hours estimated learning time)
Relating to Patients
"Good medical practice is based on a relationship of trust between doctors and society and involves a partnership between patient and doctor that is based on mutual respect, confidentiality, honesty, openness, empathy, responsibility, and accountability."
What it means: the doctor-patient relationship itself: respect, partnership and trust. The Guidelines give no example list here.
Example CPD: reflecting on structured patient feedback; reviewing a complaint or compliment; consent learning with a note on what you changed.
Matching coursePrivacy, Consent, and Chaperones in Healthcare Practice (3 hours estimated learning time)
Communication and Interpersonal Skills
"Medical practitioners must demonstrate effective interpersonal communication skills. This enables the exchange of information, and allows for effective collaboration with patients, their families and also with clinical and non-clinical colleagues and the broader public."
What it means: how well information moves between you and others. The Guidelines' long example list covers topics such as "giving information to patients about their condition", "dealing with adverse outcomes", "referring patients" and "telemedicine".
Example CPD: a reflected-on difficult conversation; reviewing your referral letters against a template; multisource feedback.
Matching courseEffective Communication for Healthcare Professionals (3 hours estimated learning time)
Collaboration and Teamwork
"Medical practitioners must co-operate with colleagues and work effectively with healthcare professionals from other disciplines and teams."
What it means: working well with other disciplines, and, as the Schedule adds, making sure there are "clear lines of communication and systems of accountability" among team members to protect patients. Examples in the Guidelines include "attending group or interdepartmental multidisciplinary team meetings" and "providing cover for colleagues when appropriate".
Example CPD: MDT participation with a reflective entry on one decision; a team debrief after a difficult shift.
Matching courseEnsuring Teamwork and Collaboration for Healthcare Professionals (3 hours estimated learning time)
Management (including Self-Management)
"A medical practitioner must understand how working in the health care system, delivering patient care and how other professional and personal activities affect other healthcare professionals, the healthcare system and wider society as a whole."
What it means: seeing your work as part of a system, and managing yourself. The Guidelines' two examples here repeat ones listed under Collaboration and Teamwork.
Example CPD: a governance or risk committee; a service redesign; a structured reflection on workload and wellbeing.
Matching courseClinical Risk Management (3 hours estimated learning time)
Scholarship
"Medical practitioners must systematically acquire, understand and demonstrate the substantial body of knowledge that is at the forefront of the field of learning in their specialty, as part of a continuum of lifelong learning."
What it means: keeping your knowledge current and searching "for the best information and evidence to guide their professional practice". The Guidelines' examples include "teaching, training, appraising, and assessing doctors and students" and "research".
Example CPD: leading a journal club; teaching students or trainees; an evidence-based audit and re-audit.
Matching courseQuality Improvement and Clinical Audit (3 hours estimated learning time)
Professionalism
"Medical practitioners must demonstrate a commitment to fulfilling professional responsibilities by adhering to the standards specified in the Medical Council's 'Guide to Professional Conduct and Ethics for Registered Medical Practitioners'."
What it means: living the Guide. Examples in the Guidelines include "raising concerns about patient safety", "integrity in professional practice", "conflicts of interest", "open disclosure" and "an apology".
Example CPD: reflecting on an open disclosure conversation; structured learning on the 9th Edition Guide.
Matching courseProfessionalism and Professional Standards for Doctors (3 hours estimated learning time)
Clinical Skills
"The maintenance of professional competence in the clinical skills domain is clearly specialty-specific and standards should be set by the relevant Postgraduate Training Body according to international benchmarks."
What it means: the skills of your specialty, as your training body defines them. For this domain, the Guidelines say "Postgraduate Training Body" is to be read as your scheme operator, so its guidance decides what counts.
Example CPD: a specialty skills workshop or simulation; a procedure log reviewed against outcomes.
Related refresherSepsis and the Deteriorating Patient (3 hours estimated learning time). A cross-specialty refresher; it does not replace the specialty standards your training body sets.
Mapping CPD to domains: how one activity covers several
RCSI's portal guidance says you select the relevant domain "where possible" when adding a record and "can select one or many domains". At the ICGP, activities added with a CPDR code have their domains pre-populated in the ePortfolio.
A College of Anaesthesiologists of Ireland document marked "Consultation Draft" states that PCS activities "must be mapped to one or more" of the eight domains and that the mapping is used during its Annual Verification Process to check breadth. Its suggested mappings show how broad one activity can be:
| Activity | Domains suggested in the draft |
|---|---|
| Clinical audit | Patient Safety and Quality of Care; Scholarship; Clinical Skills |
| Critical incident or significant event review | Patient Safety; Professionalism |
| Multisource feedback | Professionalism; Communication and Interpersonal Skills; Collaboration and Teamwork |
| Patient feedback | Relating to Patients; Communication and Interpersonal Skills |
| MDT meetings | Collaboration and Teamwork; Communication and Interpersonal Skills |
Multi-tagging is legitimate only when the activity genuinely involved each domain and your reflection shows it. A journal club is Scholarship; it becomes Collaboration and Teamwork only if your entry shows team learning. Reflection that makes the link visible is covered in what counts as work-based learning and how to record it.
Want help mapping everyday work to the domains?Our Work-Based Learning and Professional Competence course shows how to turn routine clinical work into reflective entries, map them to the Eight Domains and keep the evidence in your ePortfolio. It is CPD; check with your scheme how it can be recorded.
See what's coveredBuilding a three-year domain plan into your PDP
The Guidelines say PDPs "should reflect the application of the Eight Domains of Good Professional Practice", and the Council's booklet adds that PDPs "should also incorporate" the domains. The PDP is mandatory, updated annually, and "a tool for professional development and not for performance management". Its final stage is "reflection and, as required, revision".
Each May: run a domain count
Count the domain tags across your last two years of entries. Any domain with zero or one tag becomes a named PDP objective.
With your PDP colleague: test the gaps
Is the gap real (you never do this work) or a recording gap (you do it but never tag it)? Recording gaps need better entries, not more activity.
During the year: tag as you go
Add domains when you create each record. Retro-tagging in April invites weak mappings.
Before 30 April: reflect and revise
Recheck the three-year picture and carry any uncovered domain forward as a priority.
A consultant's two-year count shows Clinical Skills and Scholarship tagged often, Relating to Patients once and Management never, although she sits on her hospital's drugs and therapeutics committee. Her new PDP has two objectives: record committee work with a reflective note on one access decision (Management), and run a short clinic patient feedback exercise with a reflection (Relating to Patients, likely Communication too).
For a step-by-step guide to the plan itself, including the colleague conversation, see how to write a PDP for your PCS year. Our Medical Council Practice Review and PDP course treats plan and practice review as one cycle.
Domains that are easy to overlook, and why
We are not aware of any published figures on which domains doctors under-record, so treat this section as reasoning rather than data. Conferences and journals naturally feed Clinical Skills and Scholarship; the domains about how you work, rather than what you know, need more deliberate attention.
Usually well covered
- Clinical Skills: specialty meetings, workshops, simulation
- Scholarship: journal clubs, teaching, accredited conferences
- Patient Safety: audit and incident review
Often need a plan
- Management: committee and service work, often unrecorded
- Relating to Patients: needs patient-facing reflection
- Professionalism: easy to assume, harder to evidence
Doctors not engaged in the practice of medicine need a combined 25 hours of practice review or work-based learning instead of the separate minimums, and should ask their training body how the domain rule applies.
Common mistakes when tagging domains
- Tagging all eight on everything. Unsupported tags undermine the whole record. Tag what the reflection shows.
- Leaving the domain field blank. Coverage you have earned becomes invisible.
- Keeping evidence off-platform. Records without evidence "will not be considered" at verification.
- Assuming any course covers Clinical Skills. Your training body sets the specialty standards.
- Assuming the window resets each May. It is undefined; confirm with your scheme.
Training bodies verify a percentage of enrolled doctors each year, examining "all recorded activity" and whether it is accurate and in line with your plan.
A domain coverage check to run before 30 April
The scheme year ends on 30 April. Run this in March to leave time to act (ticks are not saved).
If you are choosing a practice review project for the coming year, list two or three candidates and note which domains each would genuinely involve before you choose. Our list of practice review examples for the PCS gives 25 audit and QI ideas to start from.
Courses that help you cover the harder-to-evidence domains
Chosen for Professionalism, Collaboration and Teamwork, and the reflective recording that makes every domain visible.
Professionalism and Professional Standards for Doctors
- Applies the Medical Council's 9th Edition Guide
- Consent, open disclosure, boundaries and digital practice
- 30 scenario questions
Ensuring Teamwork and Collaboration for Healthcare Professionals
- Roles and accountability across multidisciplinary teams
- Managing conflict and speaking up
- Learning from teamwork failures
Work-Based Learning and Professional Competence
- Turn routine clinical work into WBL entries
- Write reflection and map it to the Eight Domains
- Keep ePortfolio evidence; 30 scenario questions
Medical Council Practice Review and PDP
- Plan your 50-hour PCS year under the May 2025 framework
- Build a PDP and choose audit, QI or practice evaluation
- Record it in your ePortfolio
Check with your scheme how a completed course can be recorded and which domains it may support.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to cover all eight domains every PCS year?
No. The requirement in the Medical Council's 2025 Guidelines is that your CPD covers each of the eight domains at least once in a three-year period.
When does the three-year period start?
The Guidelines do not say whether the period is fixed or rolling, or when the first one began. The 2025 framework took effect on 1 May 2025, so plan to show all eight domains in any three consecutive PCS years and ask your Training Body how it applies the window.
Can one CPD activity count for more than one domain?
Yes. RCSI's portal guidance says you can select one or many domains for a record. Only tag a domain if the activity and your reflection genuinely involved it.
Who decides what counts for the Clinical Skills domain?
Your Postgraduate Training Body. The Rules describe Clinical Skills as specialty-specific, with standards set by the relevant training body according to international benchmarks, and the Guidelines say that for this domain the training body is to be read as your scheme operator.
Are the domain descriptors in the Rules and the Guidelines identical?
Almost. The Schedule to S.I. No. 176 of 2025 is the legal text. Appendix B of the Guidelines summarises them with minor wording differences and adds example topics. The Rules are the binding version.
Official sources used in this guide (11)
- Irish Statute Book, S.I. No. 176 of 2025, MPC Rules 2025 and Schedule (2025)
- Irish Statute Book, S.I. No. 171 of 2011, MPC Rules (No. 1), Appendix 1 (2011)
- Medical Council, Maintenance of Professional Competence Guidelines (May 2025)
- Medical Council, Information booklet for doctors on annual CPD (May 2025)
- Medical Council, MPC Framework 2025 key differences (2025)
- Medical Council, Professional Competence page (2025)
- Medical Council, Guide to Professional Conduct and Ethics, 9th Edition (2024)
- Law Reform Commission, Medical Practitioners Act 2007, s.94 (revised)
- Irish College of General Practitioners, New PCS Framework (2025)
- RCSI, PCS guidelines and resources (2025)
- College of Anaesthesiologists of Ireland, Verification of Practice Review and WBL guidance, v2.0 consultation draft (2025)
Checked against the official sources above in October 2026. Rules and fees change, so confirm current requirements with your regulator or scheme.