Although it may be nearly two years before CPD becomes mandatory (PJ, 24 August pp262-3), the more the CPD process becomes integral to your practice, the easier you will find it when you have to demonstrate that you are doing it.

The Pharmaceutical Journal has always sought to keep its readers up to date with changes in pharmacy practice by providing information on clinical developments and changes in the law and technology relevant to pharmacy. Indeed you might use any page in The Journal to help meet one or more of your identified CPD needs.

However, we are now aiming to provide you with additional help to facilitate your CPD. Each week The Journal will publish an article that you might consider using to help meet your CPD needs. Three months ago, we changed the presentation of the articles to incorporate the principles of the CPD cycle. This includes:

• Questions to help you to identify gaps in your knowledge. However, you should also consider how using the article will be of value to your practice.

• Practice points. As we all know it is easy to read an article but make little use of it in practice, so our action box is aimed at helping you consider issues which you might take further.

If you do choose to use a Journal article for CPD, we recommend that you evaluate your development and record your resp-onses to each stage of the CPD cycle.

We are not seeking to be prescriptive. It is up to you to decide on your own CPD needs and the ways in which you meet these needs.

The pilot

We are now offering a further 500 pharmacists the opportunity to have their CPD accredited by the College of Pharmacy Practice free of charge. If you decide to join our pilot, it will involve:

• Reading CPD articles in The Journal over 13 weeks (from September 7 to November 30 inclusive) when CPD needs are identified

• Answering 10 multiple choice questions which will be based on the articles published during the quarter

• Completing one practice point from a choice of nine and producing a brief summary (maximum 500 words) of your work. This will include justifying your choice and evaluating how you have developed your practice by using the article(s).

• Sending your MCQ answers and summary to the College of Pharmacy Practice for assessment by 13 January 2003

If you registered but were not selected for our first pilot, you will be given a place in this second pilot unless you let us know that you no longer wish to participate. You do not need to register again.

Logistics

To take part in the scheme, you will need to register with The Journal by 1 October 2002 but names will be selected on a first-come first-served basis. Participants in the first pilot will not be able to take part in the second. Fill out the coupon here.

If your registration is successful, we will post you the MCQs and the list of practice points at the end of November but we will not be able to acknowledge your application or let you know in advance that you have been selected.

Accreditation and feedback

On successful completion of the MCQs and one practice point, you will be sent a certificate by the College of Pharmacy Practice as further evidence of your participation. It must be emphasised that participation in the pilot is an end in itself. The accreditation will indicate that your participation has been satisfactory. It will not indicate hours spent or whether your summary was right or wrong. Model summaries will be published on Pjonline.

The topics to be covered over the 13 weeks include heart disease, drug-food interactions, the social dimensions of pharmacy, decision making, echinacea and the third part to our evidence-based medicine series.

The aim of this pilot is to discover whether or not pharmacists need further guidance in participating in CPD, and how the PJ can help. We would therefore welcome your feedback on any aspect of this scheme from layout to ideas for topics to be covered in the future. Any queries about or feedback on The Journal's CPD pilot should be sent to:

Lin-Nam Wang
The Pharmaceutical Journal
1 Lambeth High Street
London SE1 7JN

Tel +44 (0) 20 7572 2413

Email lin-nam.wang@pharmj.org.uk