The Pharmaceutical Journal Vol 267 No 7174 710-713
17 November 2001

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Letters to the Editor

CPD (2 letters)

Must not forget its key purpose

From Mr D. A. Hancox, MRPharmS

Let us keep continuing professional development simple, In two recent PJ contributions (27 October, p594 and pp613–15) it was suggested that, as part of a CPD requirement, the 30-hour continuing education requirement should remain.

This is surely nonsense and unnecessary. There will be a need to judge a pharmacist's CPD portfolio on the basis of its adoption of an acceptable behavioural approach together with an appropriate coverage of topics related to the pharmacist's role and responsibilities. To include a fixed CE requirement will only serve to distort the pharmacist's behavioural approach, to over-emphasise the importance of CE and to hinder the full acceptance of the concept of CPD.

Let us also remember that, while a CPD requirement can be used to reassure society of pharmacists' competence and fitness to practise, the movement to introduce CPD has been driven by a desire to support the development of individual pharmacists and of the profession. Its regulatory role must not overshadow this key purpose.

Douglas Hancox
Auckland, New Zealand

What about part-timers?

From Mr J. A. P. Meulendijk, MRPharmS

I am a Dutch pharmacist, working as a locum in community pharmacy in Britain for something like six hours per week. My experience of owning and running a large pharmacy in the Netherlands is, dare I say, not inconsiderable. Since coming to the UK my main occupation has lain elsewhere. The odds are that situation is not going to change. At the same time, I enjoy keeping up to date with developments in the pharmaceutical sciences; keeping my hand in, so to say, even at the appalling rates of pay for locums. My personal attitude towards learning, acquiring knowledge and using it to the best of my intentions, can only be described as positive.

Do I need to go on any of the ridiculously time-consuming and expensive postgraduate courses offered (PJ, 27 October, pp616–23)? I do not think so. My entire life has been devoted to absorbing information. I do not recall ever having missed or failed an examination — neither when studying pharmacy, nor when qualifying to become a lawyer.

So what do I do? Devote one to two hours a week to studying pharmacology and therapeutics, gradually work my way round, and then start all over again, adding in the occasional article in The Pharmaceutical Journal (why that does not count as CE I do not understand) and a selection of other scientific journals.

Does this qualify as continuing professional development? My gut feeling tells me it will not, so I might in the end be forced to join a mass exodus, even though I definitely do not count myself among those "who are not committed to the ethics and morals of excellence and clinical governance".

I do not think my situation is the norm, but it is not outrageously special either. What does the Royal Pharmaceutical Society intend to do with this sort of case?

Jan Meulendijk
Haverfordwest,
Pembrokeshire

Dr ROBERT DEWDNEY, head of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's education division, replies:

The current Medicines, Ethics and Practice guide provides good advice on good practice for ensuring professional competence (pp103–06), which addresses the substantive issues raised by Mr Meulendijk. Such advice applies equally to part-time and full-time pharmacists.

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