All aboard for CPD.

Abstract

It is a statutory requirement for all registrants with the General Dental Council to undertake Continued Professional Development (CPD) in order to maintain their registration and hence, their ability to practice dentistry within the United Kingdom. Historically, CPD was seen as a key component of the GDC Lifelong Learning Scheme and is currently undergoing a wide-ranging consultation and review (GDC, 2012). Suggested changes include the introduction of a new minimum CPD requirement, annual CPD declarations to maintain registration and that all CPD should be verifiable. CPD is viewed as essential for dentists and dental care professionals to practice in accordance with the current standards and expected principles of the GDC (GDC, 2013). How do I know what CPD I need to undertake? Given the vast amount of options it can be difficult to decide what is appropriate. CPD can be delivered in the form of courses and lectures, training days, peer review, clinical audit, e-learning and of course, reading journal articles. Some guidance is provided by the GDC but ultimately, it is left to the individual registrant to decide. As it stands, within a five-year cycle dentists and dental care professionals are expected to undertake 250 (minimum 75 hours verifiable) and 150 (minimum 50 hours verifiable) hours of CPD, respectively. The GDC also highly recommends CPD be undertaken in three key topics per cycle: medical emergencies (10 hours), disinfection and decontamination (5 hours) and radiography and radiation protection (5 hours). In addition, CPD (general or verifiable) should cover legal and ethical issues, complaints handling and oral cancer detection. But how do I complete the other requirements? It may be useful to bear in mind the definition of CPD as ‘lectures, seminars, courses, individual study and other activities, that can be reasonably expected to advance your professional development as a dentist or dental care professional and is relevant to your practice or intended practice’ (GDC, 2013). Recent revision of the dental course curriculum requires courses to meet the required learning outcomes and standards as stipulated by the GDC. This outcomes-based requirement also extends to CPD and hence, clinicians should consider this when planning courses they wish to participate in. Are there any tools that can be used to help me identify my CPD needs? As part of GDC’s new proposals for CPD, the use of a Personal Development Plan (PDP) and reflection has been advocated. PDP’s have been reported to be both effective in leading to changes in patient care and personal development of the learner (Evans et al., 2002). Both clinical audit and peer review have also been suggested as useful processes that can be used in the identification of a more coherent and structured CPD (Bullock et al., 2000). Reflection of clinical performance, skills and knowledge is becoming a useful tool in CPD. Although it maybe sometimes difficult to find time to reflect, reflection can be incorporated into both clinical audit and peer review. Importantly, it should be remembered that every positive and negative outcome is an opportunity to reflect, learn and improve. Maintaining CPD requirements in a modern healthcare environment remains a challenging proposition influenced by many factors. Clinicians working in both primary and secondary care face the demands of delivering high quality care to increasing numbers of patients with complex issues, whilst maintaining their own professional development. Sometimes there are not enough hours in a day! The British Orthodontic Society is firmly committed to promoting the study and practice of orthodontics and both maintaining and improving professional standards. In keeping with these aims, members can fulfill CPD requirements by attending courses arranged by the society, the annual conference and reading published audits and scientific articles published in both the Clinical Effectiveness Bulletin and Journal of Orthodontics, respectively. Along with attending postgraduate courses and discussion with colleagues, reading journals is one of the most frequent forms of CPD undertaken by dentists (Bullock et al., 2003; Buck and Newton, 2002). Journalbased CPD has been reported to be an effective way of undertaking verifiable CPD (Tredwin et al., 2005). We are currently beginning the process of improving CPD provided by the Journal of Orthodontics. From March 2015 onwards an expanded Multiple Choice Question (MCQ) and clinical articles test will be introduced based on the scientific, review, clinical articles published within each edition of the journal and supplement editions. In addition, MCQ tests based on the abstracts of articles that reflect the GDC learning outcomes/standards will be included. Up to 4 hours of verifiable CPD will be awarded EDITORIAL Journal of Orthodontics, Vol. 41, 2014, 271–272