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Letters to the Editor
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CPD
A Cub Scout’s guide to getting started on CPD
From Ms R. Ramsey
Although unlikely to become a popular Cub Scout badge, the following “Stage
I CPD Badge” may be helpful to pharmacists still contemplating
opening their pizza box.
Complete four clauses:
· Find out what another pharmacist does and present it to the rest of
your unit in an interesting way
· Learn to use the CPD website and demonstrate what you have learnt to the
tester
· Attend several hours of presentations and make a decorated binder on a pharmacy
theme to keep your notes in
· If you are a hospital pharmacist, be nice to a community pharmacist for a
month
· If you are a community pharmacist, be nice to a hospital pharmacist for a
month
· If you are an industrial pharmacist, do not complain about the Royal Pharmaceutical
Society for a month
· If you are an academic pharmacist, do not complain for a month about the
fact that everyone forgets that you (a) exist or (b) are nurturing the development
of future pharmacists
· Take part as an extra in a CPD video
· Cut out pictures from the PJ and make a collage to show what pharmacy means
to you. Explain your collage to the tester
· Explain to the tester the difference between CPD and COPD
· Grow your own Amanita muscaria or Cannabis
indica and sell it to local schoolchildren.
Send the proceeds to the Society
· Show the tester a draft letter to the Society telling it how much you have
enjoyed your CPD
If you complete four more clauses you may be awarded another CPD badge.
After a year you must either renew the CPD badge or remove it from your
uniform.
Rebecca Ramsey
Pharmacy Student, Hertfordshire
Is it process or quality that is important?
From Mr P. Melnick, MRPharmS
At a local branch meeting held on 16 November, the Royal Pharmaceutical
Society’s appointed speaker stated that the Society would be monitoring
the continuing professional development process rather than the content.
Now, my only previous attempt to read the soporific “Plan and record” booklet
had been less than successful but, spurred by her remarks, I took another
look.
There, on the first page, it states that the emphasis will be on quality
rather than quantity, when the Society monitors your CPD.
So which is right? Process or quality, bearing in mind that non-pharmacists
can only monitor the former, while pharmacists can examine either?
Further, on p3 of the introduction, it mentions that some pharmacists
are already recording their CPD in other formats and can continue to
do so, provided it is more than simply a record of continuing education.
But it is not clear what is meant here. Speaking for myself, I have considerable
difficulty in thinking in terms of reflection, planning, action and evaluation.
If I need to find out something, I just do it. I do not feel the need
to plan for it or justify it. I have therefore been recording my CPD
in an exercise book without going through that process. Will that be
acceptable in future?
Perry Melnick
Ilford, Essex
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PETER WILSON, head of post-registration, Royal Pharmaceutical Society,
replies:
The quality of CPD records will be judged by comparison with
the good practice criteria in Appendix 6 of the “Plan and record” document.
Pharmacists practise in a wide variety of contexts. Some are generalists
and some are specialists. It would not be possible for the Society
to make judgements
of the quality of the content of CPD records submitted by every pharmacist.
Although pharmacist reviewers are not asked to make judgements about the
quality of the content of CPD records, there are times when they are in a
position
to do this, for example, when a community pharmacist is reviewing another
community pharmacist’s CPD record. Having reviewed many thousands of CPD entries
submitted by pharmacists participating in the Society’s CPD pilots, it
is rare for a pharmacist reviewer to identify an issue with the quality of
the content. It would seem that once pharmacists identify what it is they want
or
need to learn, they are good at finding accurate information.
Nonetheless, if CPD reviewers identify CPD records where they have doubts
about the quality of the content, the Society will look into these. But more
commonly
the problem lies with vague or unachievable objectives, little or no clarity
as to why or how a particular topic is being learnt or little evidence that
much development is actually making a difference to the services being delivered.
The root of these problems lies in a lack of quality in the process or, to
put
it another way, the thinking behind the approach taken.
Alternative formats for keeping CPD records are acceptable but they require
prior approval by the Society. The Society has agreed the format of CPD records
provided
to pharmacists employed by some of the multiples and some parts of the NHS.
This policy allows pharmacists keeping CPD records for their employer or
for another
professional organisation to submit those records to the Society for review
without transcribing them to the Society’s format. All the formats approved
so far are structured around the four stages of the CPD cycle. A series of
records
in an unstructured exercise book would not suffice. |
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal