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Record learning outcomes

The GPhC is testing a simpler format for recording CPD in preparation for continuing fitness to practise. 

Continuing professional development has come a long way in a relatively short period of time. Only a decade ago, pharmacists tended to think of professional development in terms of attending a workshop, learning something new and getting a certificate at the end of the session showing how many hours the session ran for. With pharmacists expected to do a minimum of 30 hours continuing education a year, this last point was crucial.

Now things are very different. The importance of keeping knowledge and skills up-to-date in order to maintain and improve practice, and ultimately have a positive impact on those who make use of pharmacy services, is well understood. The CPD cycle of reflect-plan-act-evaluate is firmly established and, of course, pharmacy technicians are now General Pharmaceutical Council registrants so are also subject to CPD requirements.

However, while pharmacy professionals are well used to undertaking CPD as part of their everyday working life, logging it is widely regarded as arduous and time-consuming.

Simpler approach

The good news is that change is on the horizon. The GPhC is currently testing a much simpler model for recording CPD. For planned learning the new format requires only four questions to be answered:

• What are you learning?
• How are you learning it?
• The impact of the learning on your service users
• Give an example of how the learning has been applied. 

The unplanned learning format poses just two questions:

• Describe what triggered the learning
• Give an example of how it has been applied and had a positive impact.

A third template has been designed to allow peer-to-peer discussions to be logged and a fourth single A4 page document enables the recording of “other evidence” that demonstrates how someone is monitoring the impact and outcomes of their practice. Each completed form is considered to be a single entry. The test is part of the GPhC’s move towards a continuing fitness to practise (CFtP) framework that will fulfil the regulator’s obligation to bring in a revalidation process in order that registrants periodically demonstrate that they are able to work safely, legally and effectively.

All healthcare professions are required to follow this path but, so far, only the General Medical Council has brought it in fully. The Nursing and Midwifery Council is expected to go live with it later this year. “We have been working on the continuing fitness to practise framework since 2013,” says Osama Ammar, the GPhC’s head of CFtP.

“We are trying to move away from a single point of assessment to something that reflects what people are doing all the time and also uses what is already out there. The test that is taking place now is the first phase of a three-year programme and we have 250 volunteers from a wide range of settings across pharmacy signed up to use the [new recording] forms from June until September.

“Once the feedback and forms have been evaluated, we will go into a full pilot, which we envisage as running for nine months during 2016/17 and involving a much larger number of people, perhaps close to a thousand, which will then be evaluated. The final phase will take place during the 2017/18 financial year, when we will consult on the arrangements for the future framework with a view to it being adopted by the end of 2018.”

Joined-up thinking

While it is too early to say how existing CPD provision – for example, that provided by the Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education (CPPE), NHS Education for Scotland (NES) and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s Faculty and Foundation programmes – will be affected, GPhC chief executive and registrar Duncan Rudkin says there is a lot of formal and informal collaboration going on at different levels “to ensure there is synergy between our work and theirs”. 

“We don’t want to put unfair burden on the system by recreating things that are already out there,” adds Ammar. RPS Faculty head, Hannah Wilton, confirms that collaboration is an integral part of the CFtP project plan.

“We have been discussing the importance of the RPS Faculty being regarded as the gold standard for CFtP and the possibility of Faculty membership satisfying the GPhC’s requirements, which would mean that Faculty members do not need to complete any additional documentation. Looking at the current forms, it is clear that the portfolio built as part of the Faculty submission process and maintained thereafter provides evidence over and above what [will be] required.”

What now?

The GPhC has just come to the end of its five-year cycle of calling up CPD records. “We are considering changes that could be made now with a view to the move to CFtP so we take registrants through incremental changes rather than a leap from one to the other,” says Ammar. “We will take recommendations to Council in September so we have a plan in place for October when the next call for review will start.”

In the meantime, pharmacists and pharmacy technicians – other than those involved in the GPhC’s test phase – should continue logging their CPD as usual. Duncan Rudkin urges registrants not to be nervous about the shift to CFtP, saying: “We are building on CPD, which has a very strong and impressive culture within pharmacy and ultimately we are helping and encouraging the profession towards positive behaviours that will help us prove to the public that people on the register are up-to-date and fit to practise.”

For more on the GPhC’s plans go to pharmacyregulation.org/registration/continuing-fitness-practise.