career - CPD assessment The American way
Are there other ways to keep health professionals under a watch- ful and critical eye once they have escaped the nest of studenthood? How, for example, are American registered dietitians channelled and assessed for quality learning and professional development? The Commission on Dietetic Reg- istration (CDR) is the independent credentialing agency for the Ameri- can Dietetic Association (ADA). Their mission statement straddles their website (
www.cdrnet.org): ‘protect- ing the nutritional health and welfare of the public through dietetic certifi- cation.’ American dietitians have to pay $50 every year to be registered (less than half of the fee of £152 needed for the two-year HPC reg- istration). Dietitians need to obtain, over a five-year recertification cycle, evidence of at least 75 hours of Con- tinuous Professional Education (CPE), so about 15 hours per year. At the start of each cycle, di- etitians need to define individual learning plans, which are verified and approved. Professional activities undertaken are then recorded and can be logged online, into one (or several) of the predefined Learning Need Codes (see box). For example, attending a meeting presenting research on vegetarianism would be recorded as LNC 4110. In addition to different themes and subjects, there is a requirement
for different activity types of profes- sional development; not all CPE can be gained from one kind of learning (see box for examples of CPE activity codes). For example, reading profes- sional journals is CPE code 200 (such as Journal of the American Dietetic Association). However reading can only contribute a maximum of 15 CPE hours; this is extended up to 35 hours if one is the author of articles in peer-review journals or book chap- ters. Professional portfolios can be submitted for a mid-point review if it contains at least 30 hours, but required submission for all dietitians is within the five-year period of the individual learning plan being set up. All American dietitians have their professional portfolios assessed every five years (but how many submis- sions fail?) There are many ways to try to as-
sess professional competency post qualification, but the ultimate aim has to be to support public confi- dence, and that of other professional colleagues, in the ‘brand’ of the profession. The CDR cites Mark Fran- kel, an American ethicist: ‘no longer does any profession enjoy the luxury of uncritical admiration or implicit trust from what is now an increasingly restive public.’ Hence, what is not in dispute is the need for Continuing Professional Development.
References
www.cdrnet.org HPC - Continuing professional development annual report (CPDreport10) published March 2010
Examples of Learning Need Codes:
1000 Professional Skills
1140 Written communication, publishing 4110 Vegetarianism
5370 Obesity management 7200 Team building
8110 School meal service 9070 Research instruments and techniques
Examples of CPE Activity Codes: 110 Case presentations 130 Exhibits 160 Journal Clubs 170 Lectures, Seminars 200 Professional reading
Need to recruit a dietitian?
Be seen in print, online and in NH-eNews There is no cost-effective alternative!
The UK's largest dietetic jobsite
call 0845 450 2125 (local call rate)
www.dieteticJOBS.co.uk for all your dietetic recruitment solutions NHD 34
dieteticJOBS.co.uk NHDmag.com Aug/Sept '10 - issue 57
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40