Team of facilitators recruited to support branches’ CPD programmes
The Royal Pharmaceutical Society has recruited 21 part-time continuing professional development (CPD) facilitators to support its branches in taking up a new role in CPD to help pharmacists better understand and manage their own CPD requirements.
In addition, two lead facilitators will act as liaison between the branch
facilitators and the Society’s membership team.
By October 2004, the Society’s CPD framework will have been extended
across Britain, and CPD is likely to be made mandatory in 2005. But feedback
suggests that many pharmacists do not fully understand what CPD is or
how it will affect their daily working lives, the Society says. Moreover, “some
pharmacists are uncertain and apprehensive about CPD and have concerns
about what constitutes an adequate CPD record and how their participation
in CPD may affect their right to practise as a pharmacist”.
The CPD facilitators, who are all pharmacists, will each liaise with
between four and eight of the Society’s 130 branches. Each branch
will be able to run two facilitated meetings during the course of the
year.
The meetings will use the Society’s new CPD toolkit. This includes
a number of 30-minute modules allowing branches to add CPD support activity
to their meetings. The modules can also be chosen to reflect the level
of experience of individual branch members and have been designed to
be interactive and enjoyable.
Ann Lewis, Secretary and Registrar, said: “The Council has responded
to the wish of the branches to play a central role in supporting members’ CPD.
This new programme brings together elements of the Society’s role
as a membership organisation, educational and professional leadership
body and regulator to create a framework for branches to be at the heart
of CPD. I hope that branches will enjoy taking forward this important
programme of work.”
The newly appointed facilitators come from a range of pharmacy backgrounds
and have a broad range of experience across different aspects of practice.
Lead CPD facilitators Anthony Trice and Sue Jones |
The
two lead facilitators are Anthony Trice, a Hampshire-based former hospital
pharmacist who is now a human resources lecturer, and Sue Jones,
a former community pharmacist who is now a clinical pharmacy practice
lecturer at King’s College London.
As part of a PhD thesis, Ms Jones is currently researching some of the
issues surrounding CPD and the implications for the profession. She says: “In
my research I have found that pharmacists may perceive the time taken
to do their CPD as a barrier. Pharmacists are often unaware of how much
CPD they actually undertake and the role of the facilitator to identify,
with the branch, which elements of a specially designed toolkit would
help their branch with this process.”
The branch facilitators will contact branch secretaries and nominated
CPD links shortly to arrange to attend branch meetings from September
onwards.
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal