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Check your college's rubric before you pay. Orthopaedics caps all courses at 3 points 1; urology scores ASSET, CCrISP, EMST and CLEAR at zero 2; vascular gives EMST and CCrISP one point each 3; O&G gives 6 for the Prevocational Pathway and 1–3 for anything else, never both 4. ALS2 is credentialing, not points.
There is no generic "courses" score. What a course is worth depends entirely on which college you are applying to, and the numbers are smaller than the price tags suggest. Orthopaedics scores BST, ASSET, CCrISP, EMST or AOA ASM attendance at one point each to a maximum of three 1. Urology explicitly scores ASSET, CCrISP, EMST, CLEAR and RACS-equivalent courses at zero 2. Vascular gives EMST and CCrISP one point each to a cap of two, and ASSET, CLEAR and TIPS half a point each 3. O&G gives six points for completing the Prevocational Pathway ($1,306) or one to three points for other relevant PD courses of at least five hours and five CPD points completed after 1 Jan 2024 — you claim one route or the other, never both 4. Every RACS applicant needs Introduction to Operating with Respect as a gate 5.
Some colleges score nothing at all here. ACEM collects professional development from the last three years on a structured CV form and publishes no points matrix, because selection is standards-based rather than ranked 6. RANZCP does not score research, and the Victorian training committee states in bold that starting the Formal Education Course early gives an applicant no advantage 7.
So what is ALS2 actually for. Credentialing and competence, not selection. Several jurisdictions list resuscitation courses as desirable rather than scored for critical care streams 8. Renewal is where the money goes, and the sub's first answer is to ask whether your own hospital runs in-house recertification free and in work hours 9.
The honest version, from a consultant who sits on selection: courses are a tick box, and the constant CV building burns people out 10. Do the ones your college scores, the one your job requires, and the one you will actually use.
r/ausjdocs — community view, not policy; verbatim, cautionary beside positive where both exist, every quote linked to the comment.
Courses / research. This is unfortunately a tick box now, I really wish it wasn't. This constant CV building burns people out.
Does your hospital not have some kind of program for this? At mine, crit care regs and consultants can do an in-house recertification for free (and usually during work hours too).
Anything that will look appealing on a resume and would be generally helpful and/or are already requirements for a college would be my suggestion - ALS2, BASIC, radiology and ultrasound courses, EMST or ATLS, APLS, etc.
I got the most out of ALS 2. BASIC was important for my career, but it was an easier level of content, so it didn't add as much as ALS 2.
Courses - BASIC/ALS2/PALS etc - EMST is great, but not sure it's worth the price
Asked 43 times on r/ausjdocs (title-regex count) · encoded by hand from the numbered sources, retrieved 12 Sept 2026; no AI wrote any of it. how the count was made
asked_count = posts in the 19,145-post r/ausjdocs dump (2022-09-13 to 2026-09-12) whose title matches /\bALS2?\b|\bATLS\b|\bAPLS\b|\bEMST\b|\bBASIC\b course|\bCICM\b course|(which|what|worth).{0,20}courses/i. Quotes pair the 'do these ones' list with the selection-side view that courses are a tick box, and with the free in-house recertification answer that undercuts the cost question.