The Appraisal Process

Your annual Personal Development Plan (PDP) will be derived from your annual appraisal. This will need to be agreed and signed off by your Appraiser. Your PDP will contain a number of goals.

Practical Advice

Although there will be no required number, most will probably pick between 3 - 5 achievable goals. Make sure that the work involved is thought through i.e. if you choose a goal which will require a significant amount of work then ensure you do not have too many goals.

Also remember to make the goals SMART

Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant
Time scale

The key bit of this is the reflection - that is how we learn, not just going through the process.

You will need to record your goals and the outcomes.

Learning Credits

There is still a lot of discussion about these: Will they work? How are they measured? This system is being used by all of the medical Royal Colleges

The purpose of the credit system of measuring your continual professional developments is to:

Ensure that every general practitioner updates and applies their knowledge and skills
Promotes patient confidence
Improves patient care

The current position is as follows:

You need to achieve 250 credits over a 5 year period
A minimum of 50 credits need to be achieved each year
You will need to demonstrate a broad range of educational activity - not just focused in one area
The individual will self assess the number of credits and this will be confirmed by the appraiser.

The following examples are taken from The RCGP documentations:

The general practitioner presents a significant event to a significant event audit meeting; reflects on the discussion and writes up the outcome - 2 Credits

After one half day Protected Learning Time on chronic kidney disease the general practitioner undertakes an audit, introduces a new protocol into the practice and re-audits to show improvement - 15 credits

After a half day Protected Learning Time the general practitioner reviews the practice policy on safeguarding children and checks the notes of three recent case - 6 credits

Practical advice

This is not a measure of time, more a measure of impact. So to gain your credits ensure what you do has variety, that you reflect on what you have done and if it leads to change and improved patient care the more the better as this will have more value.

There will be local and national help if there is a disagreement about the number of credits claimed.

NFW April 09