Crystal clear goals and clear strategies was Mr JAYESH PATEL's advice to colleagues for successful continuing professional development. "At the end of the day, it must improve your practice", he said. Writing an article or preparing a presentation had in his experience proved extremely helpful in identifying training needs by crystallising his thoughts. Interaction with colleagues was an invaluable resource since practical experience helped to put the theory into context and it had helped him on a number of occasions.
In Mr Patel's view, CPD was a circular process involving planning, action, evaluation and reflection, of which the last one was the crucial one. "Reflection and identifying the right needs is the key to any successful CPD", Mr Patel said, insisting that the period for reflection was most likely to be the only added time demanded of a pharmacist. Having identified the training needs, prioritising the needs was vital, Mr Patel said, in terms of which skills were required immediately, which knowledge or skills were used on a day-to-day basis and which of them were only used occasionally.
Mr Patel admitted that CPD was a matter of creating time at reasonable cost and that it was important to have the right number of staff with the appropriate skills.