Society's CPD website to be made easier to use
The Council of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society has agreed that the Society’s continuing professional development website should be developed to increase flexibility of use and make it a less complex means of making a CPD entry.
That was decided at the April
Council meeting, when the Council considered
a report from its CPD recording working group, which had been established
to consider possible improvement to the current arrangements for recording
and monitoring CPD. The report made three recommendations:
1. A survey should be commissioned to obtain an accurate estimate of
the number of pharmacists and technicians who have started recording
their CPD and their views on recording CPD. The results to be reported
to Council by August 2006.
2. The CPD website should be developed to increase flexibility of use,
provide a less complex means of making a CPD entry and improve functionality;
similar improvements to the website should also be implemented for paper-based
recording and CPD desktop.
3. A communications strategy for CPD should be developed with clear Council
leadership and implemented in partnership with other stakeholders in
pharmacy.
The recommendations were introduced to the Council by the Society’s
head of postregistration, Peter Wilson, who said that the group had reached
two broad conclusions. The first was that some 19,000 members — about
half the practising membership — had started recording CPD. This
figure was a combination of hard data from the CPD website and an estimate
of numbers using other methods of recording their CPD. The second broad
conclusion was that potentially half the membership had still to start
recording CPD and they needed to do that in time for the Society to start
calling in CPD records when the Section 60 Order took effect — probably
in the first quarter of 2007. So the priority was to maximise the number
of members recording CPD before the end of the year. The conclusions
of the working group were really based upon that priority.
The view of the group was that if with at least 16,000 members using
the online CPD recording system, then the system must be fit for purpose.
However, the group also took the view that the range of options presented
to members when they started to make a record could be a disincentive
to new users and the language used in the recording system could usefully
be in plainer English. The recording system could make use of electronic “wizards”,
which would present the user with simple questions and fit their responses
into a CPD entry without them having to face a range of options. Users
already familiar with the full system could continue using that.
The group also took the view that, if
such an approach to CPD recording was developed, then it should be emulated
as far as possible in the other main ways for recording CPD — on
a home computer using the Society’s CPD Desktop software and on
a paper record.
The group further concluded that there was a need to improve communication
with the membership about CPD because, despite publicity, not everyone
was familiar with all the support materials available to help members
develop their CPD. This had led to the sending out of a letter from the
President to every members and the distribution with The Journal of a
reply paid card for requesting CPD materials. The number of cards returned
was 6,000, of which 4,000 asked for the new guide on getting started
with CPD.
After debate, the Council approved the three recommendations. It also
agreed a suggestion from the working group that it should give further
consideration to the Society introducing an accreditation scheme for
continuing education programmes, funded by the programme providers.
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal