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Letters to the Editor
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Continuing professional development (CPD)
Do not think of recording your CPD as being tedious
From Mr J. Sargeant, MRPharmS
There is little to be gained by harking back to the good old days, when
completing 30 hours of continuing education was enough to show your competence
as a pharmacist. Often, the 30 hours consisted of an ad hoc eclectic
mix of courses that were completed to play the numbers game and with
limited relevance to the pharmacist’s actual role, especially for
those whose job had a large element of non-clinical work.
A. Matalia (PJ, 7 May, p543) says that “we should go back to the
system of continuing education, because reflection is meaningless in
practice and does not guarantee competence”. Reflection alone certainly
cannot guarantee competence, but continuing professional development
is a cyclical process and the other elements of planning, action and
evaluation need to be undertaken to gain maximum benefit.
CPD puts the individual pharmacist in control of his or her own learning
and development. Pharmacists decide (reflection) where they need to improve
their practice and what they need to do to improve (planning). Then they
undertake the required activities (action) and finally they review what
they have done to see if they have succeeded in their goal or need to
do more (evaluation). Following the CPD cycle need not be onerous if
tailored to the individual’s preferred learning style.
Recording involvement in CPD is a necessary evil. In the increasingly
litigious society in which we live, it is not only important to be competent,
but also to be seen to be competent. What better way to do this than
to be able to provide, should you need to do so, documented evidence
that you have constantly tried to improve your performance over time,
especially where this has been evaluated and, hopefully, approved by
the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.
CPD is about life-long learning and is vital part of what we do. The
past 20 years have seen a fundamental change in the practice of pharmacy;
the next 20 years will undoubtedly see even more revolutionary ways of
doing things. A few courses and a few certificates of attendance are
unlikely to suffice, especially because it will never be possible to
find a course to meet every identified development need. Pharmacists
must not think of recording your CPD as being tedious, but should take
an active part in their own learning, and proactively identify ways and
means to improve their practice. Only then will they make life easier
for themselves.
John Sargeant
Ashbourne,
Derbyshire
Why can trainees not use the “Plan and record” website?
From Mr J. Kwan
I would like to ask the Royal Pharmaceutical Society why preregistration
trainees are not presently allowed to use the “Plan and record” website.
We pay fees and we have identification numbers. It is not rocket science.
Surely the Society must accept that trainees will need feedback on their
CPD if they are to carry it out successfully for the rest of their working
lives.
The process is different from that of recording evidence to the defined
performance standards of the preregistration year. The emphasis of this
year is a prescribed syllabus (performance standards and the examination),
which is a different philosophy to CPD. However, we are required to demonstrate
ongoing learning and development.
I am now reaching the stage where I am increasingly told I should act
as if I were a registered pharmacist, yet I am not receiving the same
support from the Society. I am sure it would be much better if we were
allowed to get to grips with the preferred method of recording before
registration.
Jason Kwan
Preregistration Trainee
Musgrove Park Hospital,
Taunton,
Somerset
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FRED AYLING, CPD officer, Royal Pharmaceutical Society, replies:
May
I thank Mr Kwan for his timely letter. I am keen to do what I can
to encourage preregistration trainees to make a start at engaging with
and recording
their CPD. In fact, the CPD materials are open source and may be downloaded
from the CPD website at www.uptodate.org.uk, so any trainee who wished
or wishes to engage with CPD and record it has been able to do so
on
paper since October 2002.
A review of access to CPD Online for preregistration trainees is under
way; indeed, discussion with training managers has already commenced.
This review has long
been planned to coincide with the successful completion of roll out of CPD
to pharmacists, accomplished just two months ago.
I do, though, hope to make some progress on these matters in the coming months,
ideally to time with the start of the new preregistration year. |
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal