THE FUTURE OF CPD

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

WHAT THE FUTURE MIGHT HOLD By Sally Roberts, MCSP

The words continuing professional devel- opment (CPD) have an ominous ring to many practitioners who envisage hours and hours toiling away trying to meet their governing body’s requirements while their clinical workload grows ever bigger.

But in reality the changes in professional development should be welcomed. Increasingly our working environments demand efficiency, efficacy and account- ability and professional and commercial forces are driving this change. It is no longer sufficient to rely on the skills we obtained at undergraduate level or to say that we have maintained and developed our skills throughout our careers.

Certificates of attendance at courses are no longer sufficient as proof of develop- ment, particularly when purchasers of our services are demanding evidence of cost effective treatment. Continuing profes- sional development is also a crucial aspect of a profession’s development and helps to demonstrate that members of a profes- sion are serious about maintaining and improving their professional skills in order to ensure quality of service.

As might be expected, the physiothera- 14

pists, one of the longest serving groups of health professionals, are very much lead- ing the way for many professions. This article looks at the activities of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, the governing body for physiotherapy, to get some idea of the way things are likely to develop.

SO WHAT IS CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT? CPD is used to describe the process of sys- tematic maintenance, improvement and broadening of knowledge and skills. A wide range of learning activities through which professionals maintain and develop throughout their career to ensure that they retain the capacity to practice safe- ly, effectively and legally within their evolving scope of practise.

WHAT APPROACH IS THE CSP TAKING TO CPD? The CSP’s Rules of Professional Conduct, which were revised in 2000, state quite clearly that it is the individual’s responsi- bility to practice ONLY in areas in which they can demonstrate competency:

RULE 1 of the CSP Rules of Professional Conduct states : “Chartered physiotherapists shall only

practise to the extent that they have established and maintained their abili- ty to work safely and competently and shall ensure that they have appropriate professional liability cover for that practice”.

This is a clear statement that we must maintain our knowledge and skills. We may need to provide evidence that we have done so at any time during our careers.

The CSP has also produced ‘Standards for Individual Chartered Physiotherapists’. The ‘Core Standards of Physiotherapy Practice’, which were published in 2001, state that the expectation is for individual physio- therapists to be responsible for identify- ing their own CPD needs and undertaking appropriate activities.

For those physiotherapists who are employed either by the NHS or other organisations, the identification, planning and implementation of CPD will be part of their appraisal and personal development planning process. Self employed physio- therapists have to take full responsibility for their own CPD. This also involves iden- tifying areas of practise that need updat- ing or extending, planning, implementing and identifying learning outcomes. It also

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