Final Report > Chapter 25: Competent Healthcare Professionals > The systems for assuring competence > Continuing professional development (CPD)

Continuing professional development (CPD)

52 CPD must be part of a process of lifelong learning for all healthcare professionals. Its purpose is to help professionals to care for patients. A secondary purpose, but one which must not be ignored, is to help professionals to be fulfilled in their work. It is crucial that CPD is supported by both the NHS and the professions. Within the NHS, CPD must be underpinned by a commitment to make available the necessary resources in terms of time, funding and assistance with career development. The contract between the trust and the healthcare professional should provide for the funding of CPD and should stipulate the time which the trust will make available. The incentives, in other words, must be in place. The culture of the workplace has to be one which values learning and acknowledges the benefits it will bring for the organisation as a whole, particularly as it affects patients.

53 CPD is not just a case of attending courses and conferences, albeit that these have their place. There should equally be a strong element of professional development within the workplace, since this is where skills and competence are put to the test. `Shadowing' the work of others, visits to centres of excellence, having a `mentor' and undertaking clinical and professional supervision are amongst the strategies which can be used as part of work-based professional development. Moreover, if doctors, nurses and others must keep up to date with developments, knowledge about developments must be readily accessible. This, in turn, means access to information technology and the skills to use it. This may well call for training and funding for which employers will need to make provision.

54 Clearly, allocating sufficient time and resources to CPD in a planned and organised manner is of crucial importance for all healthcare professionals. They are equally important to those who manage hospitals. When staff shortages are common and all resources are stretched, there is a constant temptation to limit in one way or another the ability of professionals to take time to study and train. It was put to us by the Royal College of Surgeons, for example, that the methods employed by surgeons for maintaining standards range from traditional lectures and practical skills training in a laboratory to a proposed process of external peer review as part of revalidation. However, they pointed out that there are financial considerations for all forms of CPD. Anatomical workshop sessions are particularly expensive and this can limit the opportunities for trainees to participate. [21] We welcome the fact that, since April 2000, all trusts have been required to have in place a training and development plan. Such plans seek to ensure that the resources devoted to continuing professional development meet the needs of patients as well as the aspirations of individual professionals. We believe that such plans must be backed with sufficient resources. CPD, as well as being good for patients, provides an incentive for professionals and thereby helps to attract and retain highly motivated individuals.

Footnotes

[21] Seminar 5. Royal College of Surgeons of England. Position Paper