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General FAQs
| What is CPD? |
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CPD is the process by which pharmacists
and pharmacy technicians keep up-to-date through learning. It includes
everything you learn that enables you to do a better job. We
all learn from experience at work as well as from formal education
activities. CPD includes both learning from work and learning from
continuing education. A detailed description of the Society’s
CPD framework can be found in the Plan and Record.
If you have not yet been sent a Plan and Record, you can download it from
this website. Click here to
download it now. |
| How does CPD relate to competence? |
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Pharmacists and pharmacy
technicians, like other health professionals, need to keep up-to-date
with changes in their field(s) of practice if they are to remain
competent. CPD will be one component of revalidation, a process that
pharmacists wishing to renew their practising rights will need complete.
CPD is based on conventional, evidence-based educational and developmental
practices. In particular, a CPD record can demonstrate how learning from
mistakes, appraisal, peer review, critical incidents, audit and other key
activities feed into the learning process to improve services and/or products.
It can also demonstrate how pharmacists and pharmacy technicians use what
they have learnt to improve their practice. CPD is not about working towards
a minimum standard, it is about continuous improvement and making such
a commitment transparent. CPD helps you to demonstrate to the NHS, employers
and the public that you are doing this. |
| I do not work in a patient care role, so does CPD apply
to me? |
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| Yes. CPD relates to
you as an individual and the work you undertake in a professional
capacity, whether you work in industry, academia, administration/management
or any other role. |
| I work in a patient care role but not all of what I
need to learn is purely clinical, so do I include these aspects? |
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| Yes. CPD relates to all the work you
undertake in a professional capacity, so may include non-clinical
aspects of your job. |
| What if I am overseas? |
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| The same principles apply to those
working overseas as for those working in Great Britain. |
| How does CPD relate to clinical governance? |
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Clinical governance is about both
continuous quality improvement and being accountable for quality
improvement. As such, CPD is an integral part of clinical governance
and it affects all health professionals working in the NHS.
The Department of Health’s publication A First Class Service:
Quality in the NHS outlines some important principles for CPD.
A First Class Service relates to England, but the same principles
and approaches apply in the other home countries.
The document describes a model of CPD, as illustrated below:
There are marked similarities between this model and the Society’s.
In relation to CPD, A First Class Service says:
| “Continuing Professional
Development (CPD) programmes need to meet both
the learning needs of individual health professionals
to inspire public confidence in their skills,
but importantly they also need to meet the wider
service development needs of the NHS.“ |
The Department of Health also emphasises the importance of relating individual
learning or development needs to those of the NHS by adding:
| “CPD programmes are best
managed locally to meet both local service needs
and those of individual professionals.“ |
and
| “We support the identification
of professional and service needs … developed
by individual health professionals in discussion
and agreement with colleagues locally. The Society’s
CPD model is consistent with this: pharmacists
should drive the process of identifying learning
needs, involving other health professionals locally
through processes such as critical incident analysis,
peer review and performance appraisal. Particular
emphasis is placed by the Department of Health
on “supporting audit of practice and relating
it to learning needs“. |
A First Class Service makes it clear that CPD is not just about courses:
| “A Personal Development
Plan should take account of different learning
preferences (such as peer group or individual
learning), clearly identify where team or multi-professional
learning offers the best solution, and take full
advantage of opportunities for learning on-the-job.
CPD does not necessarily mean going on courses.“ |
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