All pharmacists who are registered as practising members of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain are required to undertake Continuing Professional Development (CPD). Like it or loathe it, mandatory CPD is almost upon us. Most pharmacists undertake CPD in some shape or form as part of their daily work, but personal experience suggests that
this is often unstructured and usually goes unrecorded. The Royal Pharmaceutical Society has recommended the use of a cyclical process of reflection on practice, planning, action and evaluation to gain maximum benefit from learning. The aim of this article is to give practical advice on undertaking and recording CPD so that no-one is left out in the cold

Khan, F.

English

LSBU Research Open

CPD – Are you still out in the cold?Farrah Khan, Lead Pharmacist Medicines InformationWhipps Cross University Hospital NHS TrustSummaryAll pharmacists who are registered as practising members of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain are required to undertake Continuing Professional Development (CPD). Like it or loathe it, mandatory CPD is almost upon us.  Most pharmacists undertake CPD in some shape or form as part of their daily work, but personal experience suggests that this is often unstructured and usually goes unrecorded.  The Society has recommended the use of a cyclical process of reflection on practice, planning, action and evaluation to gain maximum benefit from learning.  The aim of this article is to give practical advice on undertaking and recording CPD so that no is left out in the cold.CPD basicsThe format recommended for recording CPD is set out in the Society’s Plan and Record document.   All pharmacists should have received a copy by now, but if yours has been misplaced, further copies can be downloaded from the Society’s website www.uptodate.org.uk.  Plan and Record is based on a four stage cycle:	Reflection – helping you to identify your learning needs	Planning – deciding how to meet these needs	Action – participating in training activities	Evaluation – evaluating performanceThe recording of CPD has been divided into scheduled or unscheduled learning.  Scheduled learning starts at Reflection while unscheduled learning starts at Action.Scheduled LearningReflectionA key aspect of CPD is reflecting on your practice and using this to identify your learning needs.  Reflection can take on many guises.  You could take a holistic approach and think of where you would like to be in five, ten or fifteen years time.  Then decide on what knowledge and skills would be required to achieve your career aspirations.  Or you could look at your current job description and identify training needs specific to your present role.  In this context, competency frameworks such as the one for Medicines Information pharmacists (www.ukmi.nhs.uk) are very useful.  The Society has updated the list of General Competencies applicable to pharmacists in all areas of practice (www.uptodate.org).  In addition there are specialised competencies for specific areas of practice such as the pharmaceutical industry. Other ways to reflect on practice include:	Critical incident analysis – learning from meaningful events	Appraisal and peer review – why not try a 360o appraisal (i.e. get feedback from your manager, your peers and from people you manage) 	Audit and self assessment – compare your own performance against published or in-house standards	SWOT analysis – consider your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and utilise these to your advantagePlanningOnce you have identified what you need to learn, the next step is to plan how you are going to achieve that knowledge.  A variety of learning methods can be employed, but the trick is to utilise an activity appropriate to your specific needs, both in terms of the type of skills and depth of knowledge required.  For instance, finding out about setting up a new service might be best approached by shadowing someone doing a similar job or talking to colleagues in that field, rather than through didactic learning.  Taking time to consider your learning style at this point will help you learn more effectively.  You might need to undertake more than one learning activity to achieve your desired goal.  Examples of learning opportunities include reading, short courses, distance learning, teaching and informal meetings, to name but a few.  Before setting out on the desired activity, it is important to identify:	Exactly what it is you intend to learn	How urgent is it?	How this can be measured (e.g. through presentation, peer review, meeting a standard)	The likely impact for you/your colleagues/your workplace (will it help to bring about any change?)	The effect on service to patients/customers (will it help to improve treatment/service?)	How frequently will the new skill or knowledge be utilised?	Does it relate to competencies associated with your job?	Is your learning objective SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timed)ActionThis part of the cycle is simply about undertaking the planned activities and recording what has been learnt.  Documentation may be in the form of brief notes taken at meetings/brainstorming sessions, lecture notes, presentation handouts that you have annotated, results from literature searches or even a copy of the article you may have read.EvaluationTo gain maximum benefit from the CPD cycle, it is essential that you reflect on what you have learnt and analyse whether you have met your desired learning objective.  This can be assessed through:	Applying the new skill or knowledge to everyday practice and reviewing its usefulness in improving your service	Getting feedback from users of your service (e.g. users survey or feedback forms)	Peer review	Repeat self-auditEvaluation will highlight whether your objective has been met in full, or has only been partly met.  If the objective has not been fully met, is there a need to pursue this further or do you need to look at the situation afresh?  Either way, the whole process will start again.  If the objective has been fully met, then you have completed one CPD record.Unscheduled LearningNot all learning is planned.  People often learn even when they have no particular learning need in mind.  For instance, in the process of counselling a patient about a medicine, you read something new in the patient information leaflet that can have an impact on practice.  Medicines Information pharmacists are in a unique position in that they are constantly subjected to new information in the course of their daily work routine.  Unplanned learning can also arise from activities such as reading journals, browsing the web, attending meetings and impromptu discussions with colleagues. Essentially, any knowledge gained without the prior identification of a learning need can be classed as unscheduled learning.  Recording of unscheduled learning starts at Action and there is a separate section in Plan and Record for this. This is again followed by Evaluation to assess whether any benefit has been gained from your learning.  In normal practice, your CPD should consist of a balance of both scheduled and unscheduled learning.What to record?It is very easy to get overwhelmed by the recording aspect of CPD.  Hence it is important to maintain a clear focus on what CPD is all about, i.e. improving your practice that will ultimately improve patient safety. This does not necessarily have to be in a direct clinical setting.  For instance, if you are involved in the designing of packaging for medicines, you might focus on reducing medication errors relating to drugs with similar names.  Recording everything new that you learn is unrealistic.  The aim is to achieve a balanced record of CPD that reflects your professional development as a pharmacist within your current role and sector of practice.  Although the majority of your CPD should identify you as a pharmacist in the broadest sense, it is possible to include some CPD relating to non-pharmacy aspects of your work such as business planning, staff development or information technology.  The Society has not as yet stipulated exactly how much of each type should be included.  It is recommended, however, that you complete at least one CPD record every month.How to recordThere are several ways to record your CPD.1.	Recording on-line the Society’s CPD website.  This is relatively straightforward as it takes you through the whole process step by step, and there is also an on-line self-help guide.  It does take a bit of time to get used to, especially when setting up personal competencies.  The only other problem is getting easy access to the internet.  On-line records are completely confidential and the Society is not able to access them without your permission.2.	Recording CPD on your computer.  A CD-ROM version of the Society’s Plan & Record is available for those pharmacists without internet access.  This can be obtained from the CPD team (telephone 020 7572 2540).3.	Recording on paper.  Many pharmacists have been recording their CPD on paper for several years and the Society is happy for them to continue with this.  Paper records can be compiled into a portfolio that is easily portable and can be taken almost anywhere.4.	A combination of on-line and paper records can be kept.  Once a record has been completed on line, it may be printed and a copy kept with other information (e.g. handouts).  Such a portfolio would be useful to show your manager at appraisals, or a prospective employer.Getting up and runningOnce you have decided on the area of practice to include in your CPD records, you need to start collecting evidence of your learning.  For example, after attending meetings or study days, take a few minutes to reflect on what has been learnt and think of how this can be utilised to make changes in your own department.  Before you go to a conference, reflect on what you hope to gain from attending; on your return, break down all that you have learnt into sections that can be converted into individual CPD records.  Take time to reflect on a critical incident and consider ways in which practice may be improved.  Perhaps review you work at the end of every week; record any key points that you have learnt and reflect on how these can be utilised to enhance service provision.The two main barriers to CPD that affect virtually everyone are a lack of time and motivation.  Perhaps the best way of making time for CPD is to allocate a regular slot in your diary.  Problems of motivation can be overcome through the development of CPD networks or support groups.  If possible, having a trained CPD facilitator within your department can be very useful, not only to encourage participation in CPD, but also to provide guidance on the actual process of CPD and its documentation.  If none of these options are available, simply discussing your CPD record with one or more colleagues and reflecting on practice can help to build confidence and increase motivation.ConclusionFrom the feedback provided by the Society, it appears that getting the process of learning right is just as important as the content, i.e. reflection on current practice, identification of training needs, planning how to meet these needs and evaluating outcomes.  The final link in the CPD cycle is appropriate and timely documentation.    Without documentation of your CPD there is no evidence that you are keeping up to date, or have acquired the necessary skills to undertake the job at hand.References1.	Plan and Record. RPSGB2.	Conway A.  Identification of training needs. Pharmacy in Practice, April 2003; 13(3): 86-903.	Gross Z.  CPD for Hospital Pharmacists Part 1 & 2.  Hospital Pharmacy, February 2005; 12: 65-72

CPD – Are You Still Out In The Cold?

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CPD – Are You Still Out In The Cold?

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