CPPE and APTUK are co-hosting another series of their ‘CPD – the pick and mix approach’ study days for pharmacy technicians. We are delivering the events at four venues across England during September 2007.

The aim of the study day is to explore what CPD means and demonstrate how pharmacy technicians can effectively record their own development in line with RPSGB requirements.
This is a great opportunity to network with pharmacy technician peers with similar motivation, enthusiasm and possibly challenges as you!

The events are free of charge to registered pharmacy technicians and members of APTUK. Non registered technicians can sign-up for this event by downloading the booking form (pdf), registered technicians should sign-up via the CPPE website.

For more information about the programme, dates and venues; or to book your place on one of these events, visit the CPPE website (www.cppe.ac.uk) and click on the link in the news bar on the home page or visit the APTUK website (www.aptuk.org)

25 May 07

The CPPE has put together a short CPD guide, which is available via their website www.cppe.ac.uk/downloads/CPDGuide2007.pdf, to help community pharmacists consider how they can use the results of the Community Pharmacy Patient Questionnaire to inform their continuing professional development.

12 April 07

The CPPE has embarked on an exciting new programme to support the learning and development needs of hospital pharmacists and registered hospital pharmacy technicians. The programme was officially launched in March 2006. The CPPE are working in partnership with the United Kingdom Clinical Pharmacy Association (UKCPA) and The Guild of Healthcare Pharmacists (GHP) to deliver this programme.

These modules are designed for completion in a small group setting in your own hospital. Each programme will be accompanied by ‘training guides' to allow facilitators to deliver the programme(s) in a consistent manner in each pharmacy. First off the production line will be a series of clinical modules to support the management of cardiovascular disease.

Each booklet in the modules integrates the Society's Plan & Record CPD recording forms, so you can complete them as you go along.

The first topic focuses on 'Acute Coronary Syndromes', and the second module on ‘Strategies for the Primary and Secondary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease’ are available from the CPPE website. The third module on ‘Stable Angina ’ is due to be launched in August 2006.

Click here to view the recent article in the Hospital Pharmacist (pdf 40k) discussing CPPE's Learning @ Lunch programme.

9 August 06

For the first time last year, the Society made CPD Online available to preregistration trainees.
Preregistration trainees were given the opportunity to familiarise themselves with CPD Online and to make CPD entries. To do this they were supplied with a username and password to log onto CPD Online.

Those preregistration trainees who have since registered as pharmacists with the Society, will have their preregistration CPD online accounts switched over to pharmacist accounts. The usernames and passwords provided to them as preregistration trainees should still be used to access CPD Online however, they will now need to log onto CPD Online using their pharmacist registration number rather than their preregistration trainee code. Those who need a reminder of their username and password should contact the helpdesk on 01225 383 663 or email helpdesk@coacs.com

Newly qualified pharmacists who did not receive a username and password as a preregistration trainee will be sent a letter containing a username and password for accessing CPD Online.

When logging on for the first time, newly qualified pharmacists will need to update their personal profile to indicate the sectors of practice they work in. Instructions on how to do this can be found in the CPD Online user guide included in the CPD information pack that will be sent to newly qualified pharmacists and available to download by clicking here.

9 August 06

A new publication Continuing Professional Development, A guide to getting started is now available. The guide which has been created to help pharmacists and registered technicians gain a better understanding of CPD and how to record it, is divided into 3 main sections:

1. Making CPD work for you – this is designed to help pharmacists and technicians overcome their anxieties about CPD and better understand the benefits.
2. A journey round the CPD cycle – this breaks down each of the four stages of CPD, helping to make the whole process more manageable.
3. Making sense of your CPD record – this section explains each question and provides helpful hints on filling in each section. It also takes a look at how pharmacists and technicians can review their own CPD entries and compare them to an ‘ideal’ CPD record.

The guide also includes a leaflet containing five completed examples of CPD.

To download the sections of the guide, click on the links above. Alternatively hard copies are available on request by emailing cpd@rpsgb.org or by calling the CPD team on 020 7572 2540.

20 July 06

The twelve week trial of out of office hours helpdesk ended at 4pm on Sunday 23rd April. The usefulness of the service will now be reviewed to assess the viability of providing continued out of hours support.

The helpdesk will operate as usual on weekdays (excluding bank holidays) from 9.30am to 4.30pm on 01225 383 663.

In addition to the two already featured on the website, a new primary care case study is now available. To download this case study click here.

Alternatively, paper copies are available by emailing cpd@rpsgb.org or calling 020 7572 2540

For the first time this year, CPD Online has been made available to preregistration trainees.
This service has been provided in response to a number of requests that have been made to the Society.
In order for trainees to log in they will need their trainee number and the username and password provided to them.
Once logged in, in place of the default pharmacist's competences they will be able to use the preregistration performance standards.

We have now added Health Informatics competences to the website
The new Health Informatics competences are a result of work carried out by several pharmacists involved in Health Informatics. There is a strong correlation between these competences and those competences defined in the National Occupational Standards (NOS) for Clinical Informatics.

To access the Health Informatics competences you will need to ensure you have ticked the Health Informatics box in the personal profile section of your record.

The trial of out of office hours helpdesk will end at 4pm on Sunday 23rd April. The trial has been running for the past 12 weeks. Once the trial has ended, the usefulness of the service will be reviewed to assess the viability of providing continued out of hours support.

Remaining opening times for out of hours support are:

Friday 21st April 8.00pm - 9.00pm
Saturday 22nd April and Sunday 23rd April, 2.00pm - 4.00pm

The phone number for out of hours support only is 0800 3891311.
The helpdesk will operate as usual on weekdays from 9.30am to 4.30pm on 01225 383 663.

Over the next 3 months the online CPD technical helpdesk will open out of office hours, as part of a trial to see if this service enables users to use the recording system more effectively.

In addition to the existing opening hours of Monday to Friday 9.30am - 4.30pm, the helpdesk will be opening for an extra hour on weekday evenings (8.00pm - 9.00pm) and from 2.00pm - 4.00pm on Saturday and Sunday.

When calling the helpdesk during the extended hours callers will need to use the following number 0800 3891311. This number will only be available during the extended hours specified. For help during normal help desk hours callers should call the current help desk number 01225 383 663.

At the end of the trial the Society will be evaluating the success of the out of office hours helpdesk to ensure it has provided a useful service to pharmacists alongside value for money.

There has been a significant upgrade to the recording system, which is now based on Macromedia flash technology. This overcomes problems some users had with pop-up killers. It has also allowed us to introduce the ability to organise your CPD entries into folders.

The general competences, and competences for community and hospital pharmacists have also been updated, and new ones integrated for primary care, medicines management and other roles. For further information regarding the change to competences please click here. The confidentiality tab has also been renamed ‘properties’ as this section now contains information on when CPD entries were last created and modified. For further information on the updates click here.

Some users experienced technical problems during 4th - 6th February. We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused. These problems have now been resolved.

The general competences, and competences for community and hospital pharmacists have been updated, and new ones integrated for primary care, medicines management and other roles. This is to reflect current practice more accurately and to allow the RPSGB to review CPD records more effectively providing more meaningful feedback.

The new competences have been mapped to the old competences. For existing online users, the updated competences have automatically substituted any old competences and a log of what has been substituted is available when users login, areas where an exact match is not found are highlighted to the user. For further information regarding the change to competences please click here.

New CPD Online users and users of CPD Desktop will only see the new competences, so do not need to do anything. The relevant roles or sectors of practice will have to be selected in the Personal Profile section for all the competences relating to your role to be viewed.

Those who are keeping their CPD record on paper can simply start using the new competences and do not need to substitute new for old in their existing record.

Click here to download a copy of the new competences. If you experience any difficulties downloading the files please contact the technical helpdesk on 01225 383 663. Alternatively, contact the CPD team on 020 7572 2540 or email cpd@rpsgb.org to request a paper copy of the competences to be sent to you.

Please note, the competences within the CPD recording system are intended to be a starting point. Users are encouraged to switch-off competences that do not apply to them by using the ‘edit competences’ function found in CPD Online and CPD Desktop and to add their own competences where there appear to be gaps. The competences are there to help pharmacists and pharmacy technicians identify learning needs and to demonstrate how their learning applies to roles they undertake or intend to undertake. Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians are not expected to demonstrate learning against all of the competences that apply to them. Instead they are advised to prioritise and focus on those most in need of development.

We have introduced a new facility which allows users to organise their entries into folders, for example around topics or to cover particular periods of time. This has been introduced in response to feedback from pharmacists. The folders appear at the top left of your CPD record. For information on how to use this function please see the tutorial on “Managing Folders”.

CPD Online and CPD Desktop are best used with a screen resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels or better.

If you are having difficulties viewing either CPD Online or CPD Desktop on your screen, this may be due to your screen resolution. For help in changing your screen resolution please contact the technical helpdesk on 01225 383663 or email helpdesk@coacs.com

Users with 15'' or smaller CRT (not TFT) monitors may also have difficulties viewing CPD Online and CPD Desktop. Please contact the technical helpdesk for advice.