E-LEARNING AND CPD
Reflecting on our new CPD guidance
Professor Sir Peter Rubin, chair of the General Medical Council, explains the role of doctors and employers in the new CPD guidance.
W
e have recently published new guidance to help doctors across the UK keep their
knowledge and skills up to date throughout their working life.
‘Continuing professional development: guidance for all doctors’ aims to help doctors as they reflect on their practice and prepare for revalidation.
It doesn’t tell doctors what CPD they need to do or how much, but guides them in planning, carrying out and evaluating their CPD.
Responsibility
Our guidance makes it clear that doctors must take responsibility for identifying and addressing their own CPD requirements and in doing so they must consider the needs of their patients and the teams and service in which they work. In other words, CPD cannot be just a private matter: it must be relevant to a doctor’s professional practice and focused on improving the quality of care given to patients and the public, now or in the future.
By emphasising the needs of patients and the service, our guidance also highlights the importance of appraisal, personal development plans (PDPs) and job planning when it comes to identifying CPD needs and supporting doctors in meeting those needs. This should help employers and contractors to plan and coordinate the CPD needs of their staff and monitor the effectiveness of doctors’ CPD activities.
Doctors are accountable to us for keeping their knowledge and skills up to date, but employers are responsible for making sure their workforce is competent, up to date and able to meet the needs of the service and the requirements we set. This means facilitating access to the resources – including the information systems and time to learn – that will support this.
The current economic climate makes this a challenge, but doctors will be better able to maintain and improve their performance, and
28 | national health executive Jul/Aug 12
that of the service in which they work, where employers create a culture of learning. This applies whether a doctor is a consultant, staff grade, specialty or associate specialist doctor, sessional GP, locum or trainee.
It helps that the new guidance tries to move the CPD story on from the idea that professional development is all about attending courses and conferences, and accumulating hours and credits. While acknowledging the importance of these things, the guidance points out that CPD covers any learning that helps a doctor maintain and improve their performance. It notes that opportunities for learning and reflection about performance will arise spontaneously from day-to-day practice. This can be one of the most fruitful and relevant forms of CPD because it links directly with everyday work.
And when it comes to appraisal and revalidation, the appraiser will be interested in how a doctor’s CPD inputs are intended to enhance the quality of their practice and how
they plan to develop or change their practice as a result of learning and reflecting on their performance.
Providing a framework for CPD discussions and encouraging reflection
CPD is intended to be developmental. We have not set a mandatory minimum number of CPD hours per year for doctors, nor do we want to set a regulatory minimum requirement for participation.
That doesn’t mean doctors can simply ignore our guidance and stop doing CPD. Far from it. Our guidance states clearly that doctors must remain competent and up to date in all areas of their practice and be able to show, through revalidation, that they are doing so and following recognised best practice in their speciality. Our view is that we are not close enough to the circumstances of every doctor’s practice to know how much CPD, or what type of CPD, is appropriate for every individual.
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