The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 269 No 7218 p508-509
5 October 2002

Society summary

Continuing professional development

"What are you going to do about oddballs like me?" — and other FAQs

By Peter Wilson, PhD, MRPharmS

When I was demonstrating the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s new framework for continuing professional development at the British Pharmaceutical Conference recently, a well-respected and well-known member of the profession asked me: “What are you going to do about oddballs like me?”. This article is intended to answer that and other frequently asked questions

Dr Wilson is an independent specialist in education and training and specialist adviser to the Royal Pharmaceutical Society on continuing professional development

The development of a comprehensive system for continuing professional development (CPD) was one of the targets arising from Pharmacy in a New Age. Few of us realised at the time what that might mean. This week, the CPD framework emerges from pilot status and becomes a reality, initially for 5,000 pharmacists. CPD is now with us as a professional obligation and it will apply to all pharmacists by the end of 2004.

Included in the videotape about CPD sent to every pharmacist this week are some "trailers", which indicate that a mandatory CPD framework is not far off. We expect CPD to become mandatory in 2004 and satisfactory participation in CPD will eventually be necessary for revalidation as a pharmacist. Why 2004? Well, partly because it will take that long to recruit all pharmacists into CPD and partly because it will take that long to establish the regula-tory framework. And within that process lie some tricky decisions and some frequently asked questions.

Will CPD apply to me?

Yes. The purpose of CPD is to promote the competence of a pharmacist in any sphere of practice. What you learn through CPD is related to what you do in your job as a pharmacist. So, CPD for industrial pharmacists might be based on their experience in formulation, packaging or labelling, whereas that for community pharmacists might include diabetes, osteoporosis and patient group directions. This is all well and good until we consider the increasing number of pharmacists with a portfolio career. Somebody who works for a primary care trust as a prescribing adviser for three days and in a community pharmacy for two days, and who is a member of the Society's Council, will need to keep up his or her CPD in support of all three roles. Similarly, a pharmacist who changes direction, from industry to community pharmacy, or who returns to practice after a career break should be recording CPD activities which reflect the need to update their knowledge and skills for their future roles. That is unlikely to be an insurmountable problem for an individual but could be difficult to assess and validate in a mandatory CPD system. Although mandatory CPD will apply to all pharmacists except those who are retired and those who live and work abroad, what should be the obligations for pharmacists who maintain their registration and work full-time outside the profession, perhaps as financial advisers or secondary school teachers? This question has yet to be addressed.

Will the obligation to do 30 hours of continuing education every year remain?

Some continuing education (CE) is necessary to keep up to date, regardless of where you work as a pharmacist. CPD is based on what you need to learn for work. Learning through work experience is important and should form part of your CPD record. What will be important about continuing education is that it is relevant. So there is little point in learning about tableting if you are not a production pharmacist. The time spent on education will be less important than making sure you cover what you need to learn. So you could end up doing fewer than 30 hours CE but recording more learning activities because work experience is included. Whether the 30-hour rule is changed to reflect this is a decision yet to be made.

So, if I do 30 hours of education a year, I should be OK

Sorry to disappoint you. CPD is based on an analysis of your work as a pharmacist and how you think it needs to improve. You need to think if you can improve your systems of work, provide a better service to your patients or provide new services to your patients. Education activities that are not grounded in this sort of analysis may be a waste of your time.

All right, so how much CPD do I have to do?

There is no definitive answer to this question. If community pharmacists record every medicines-related query that they have to look up, they will never finish writing up their CPD. It is a question of balance and significance. In the course of a year you will probably need to identify and take part in some formal continuing education acti-vity. Some of your CPD should be based on learning needs identified by reflecting on practice and some will arise as a result of significant or critical incidents. If your job changes, your CPD may need to increase. A good CPD record will reflect all of these factors. The "Plan and record" guide that the Society will send to pharmacists contains good practice criteria for CPD.

Experience from the pilots suggests that 12 to 15 CPD records per year is average with each one taking about half an hour to write up after the CPD is complete. The time needed for record keeping decreases as you get used to the system.

How will I know that an education programme is eligible for the Society's CPD scheme?

Any education programme can be included in your CPD record if you can show that it contributed to your professional development. A number of bodies in pharmacy and elsewhere have a requirement for participation in accredited education activities. Accreditation of education aims to provide an assurance of quality to the learner and to others. The accreditation of undergraduate degrees in pharmacy by the Society is an obvious example. When we consider CPD, the important criteria are: do I need to complete an education programme or can I learn in some other more appropriate way, and does the programme cover what I need to learn? If an education programme is appropriate then approval or accreditation is not necessary for CPD although it may be an indicator of quality. Experience, however, suggests that this is not always the case.

Can I continue to use my current CPD portfolio?

Yes you can. You can use any of the established systems for keeping CPD records although there is a preference for the Society's online recording system. Bear in mind, though, that the system you use should record the information needed by the Society. Without this, it will be impossible to review your records and provide feedback on your CPD. The Society is considering an approval process to ensure that records in different portfolio formats can be monitored efficiently without requiring laborious transfer to the Society's system. In the end, if reviewing records in different formats proves to be too difficult, it may be necessary to introduce some formal requirements for record keeping.

I don't work in clinical practice so does CPD apply to me?

Yes it does. Whatever you do it will be a requirement that you participate in CPD. A senior hospital pharmacy manager, for example, may or may not need to keep up clinically but they will use their expertise as a pharmacist every day. Relevant CPD opportunities will arise through working with pharmacists and other professionals in the hospital and through the experience of management. Similarly a pharmacist in an academic environment learns through what they teach and as a result of research.

What about older pharmacists? Won't they all retire?

This really is an implied insult to some of the most experienced members of our profession. The question assumes that older pharmacists are out of date. Why should this be so and why just older members of the profession? CPD is based on what a pharmacist needs to learn. There is no common baseline; you start from where you are today. If a pharmacist thinks about what they need to learn to do and carries that through, their CPD will meet the Society's criteria and they will get the personal and professional satisfaction from CPD that all pharmacists will experience.

If there really are pharmacists who are badly out of date and who will retire rather than taking up CPD, is that not a desirable outcome?

How does all this relate to revalidation?

There is no clear answer to this question yet but in the same way that CE is a part of CPD so CPD would be a part of revalidation. In any mandatory system, all pharmacists would expect to have their CPD records routinely reviewed by the Society. Revalidation is most likely to apply to all pharmacists who work in a health care setting. Pharmacists who work in hospital pharmacy, community pharmacy or primary care would probably have their right to practise confirmed at intervals. Typically, any of these pharmacists whose CPD gave cause for concern would receive guidance and support. If their CPD did not improve they could have their practising rights restricted or withdrawn. This is likely to remain the position as it reflects Government policy. No decision has been made about how this would apply to pharmacy but other professions have developed the concept of an "active" and "non-active" register.

So, CPD is just another stick to beat us with

No, not at all. Most pharmacists are already doing CPD. It is just that they do not recognise it and write it down. Pharmacists want to do the best for their patients and customers. CPD is part of the competence assurance framework that the Society will be devising and implementing between now and 2004. The focus is on the continual development of high quality practice, not discipline. CPD done well will benefit patients and increase the satisfaction we get from work.