PFET Spinal Fellowships

Post fellowship education and training (PFET) programs in spinal surgery are short-term supervised training programs designed to allow orthopaedic and neurosurgeons to develop their surgical skills in spinal surgery.

This subspecialty training is primarily provided through a work-based surgical program provided by a supervisor and institution. PFET programs have:

  • a defined curriculum

  • deliverability of the proposed curriculum

  • a series of in-training formative assessments 

  • process to assess satisfactory performance in training

  • a mechanism to confirm satisfactory completion of training. 

These programs are only available to those who have obtained a specialist training qualification in orthopaedic surgery or neurosurgery.

In a positive effort to work collaboratively with other surgical specialities, the Australian Orthopaedic Association (AOA) and Neurosurgical Society of Australasia (NSA) have worked closely together to develop a joint Spinal PFET Program that has been accredited by the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons.

For additional information regarding the accreditation of programs or applying to be accredited in a position, please contact administration@nsa.org.au or fellowships@aoa.org.au

The forms are to be downloaded and have been designed to be completed electronically. Text boxes can be scrolled through.

Hospital accreditation application


Individual position application

Professional performance assessments (PPA) should be completed every three months with the supervising surgeons. The PPA must be submitted to the AOA-NSA Spinal PFET Committee every six months.