CPD Continuing Professional Development

You are expected to be involved in a variety of regular learning activities that are relevant to your practice and reflect your scope of work.

There is no absolute minimum number of hours defined by the GMC, who require you to do enough to keep up to date across all of your scope of work. The RCGP, in line with other specialties, recommends a minimum of 50 hours of learning per year for doctors providing the full range of general medical services. This can include attending formal conferences and lectures, informal practice meetings and professional conversations about patients, self-directed PUNs and DENS, reading and e-Learning, reviewing data, significant events, complaints or compliments and changing practice, undertaking clinical audit or even teaching.

It is important to have a system that is simple and easy to use to record your learning, your reflections and how you will implement the learning. It is also important to keep your recording proportionate and only include what is most relevant and valuable to you - as most doctors do a lot more than 50 hours of learning if they start to recognise their activity as learning and could spend excessive time recording as a result.

Remember the GMC is interested in evidence of lessons learned and changes made as a result. Recording one or two high quality examples of reflection is better than a large quantity of headlines only.

Your CPD Record Should:

Be discussed at each appraisal
Focus on your personal learning
Reflect your scope of practice
Include reflection on what you do and what you will change as a result of learning
Be outcome focused
Be needs based

There are many ways to count CPD, including:

Attending a lecture or conference
Reading a medical journal
E-learning
Attending teaching
Case based discussion with colleagues
Clinical audit
PBSGL - https://www.pbsgl.co.uk
Reading wider literature. e.g. fiction that contains medical scenarios or increases your understanding of a patient or family's perspective
Telephone programmes which enhance your knowledge, understanding or empathy

You will need to demonstrate you are keeping your skills and knowledge up-to-date in all aspects of your work especially where you have more than one role.

Keep a CPD log of what you have done during the year, what you have done, how long you have spent doing it and recording brief reflections, focus on the outcomes of your learning rather than providing vast sums of documents. This can be recorded on any of the commercial toolkits, the RCGP portfolio, the MAG form, or the Seven Deanery toolkit, in addition, if you have registered with Fourteen Fish there is an education log available for your use.

Please also see the FAQs in the RCGP Mythbusters.

Please click on the image below, to access our complete document - Appraisal and Revalidation Guidance gor GPs and Nurses.