What is CPD?

Welcome to Ausmed’s CPD Guide! This is the first article in a series that explains the key elements of CPD — including the CPD period, general requirements, and how to prepare for an audit.

Let’s start with the basics.

What is CPD?

CPD stands for Continuing Professional Development, which refers to the learning that professionals complete in addition to their regular work tasks.

The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra), CPD is defined as:

“How health practitioners maintain, improve and broaden their knowledge, expertise and competence, and develop the personal and professional qualities required throughout their professional lives.”

CPD includes any activity that facilitates learning or development relevant to an individual’s practice. There are many ways in which a health professional can improve their practice and broaden their knowledge.

However, certain conditions must be met to document an activity as CPD. To learn more about types of CPD, read ‘What Counts as CPD?’

In Australia’s healthcare system, the primary purpose of CPD is to enhance healthcare practitioners' practice. This means that the learning must be relevant to the individual’s context of practice and current learning needs.

According to the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) fact sheet on CPD, context of practice refers to:

“The conditions that define an individual’s practice. These include the setting, population, primary focus and complexity of care provided. Scope of practice is ‘the professional role and services an individual health practitioner is trained, qualified and competent to perform'.

In summary, your context of practice means working within laws, regulations, and your level of certification and competence.

Your scope of practice will depend on the context of your practice, which will change based on population, setting and complexity levels. CPD must be relevant to a practitioner’s identified context of practice.

Why Is CPD Important?

Working in healthcare puts you in a unique position because of how directly your work impacts other people's lives. This responsibility can equally be a source of immense satisfaction and anxiety about what is at stake.

The formal requirements around CPD ensure that a person’s care experience is consistent and optimised for the best outcomes.

Formal CPD requirements also give you a sense of security and peace of mind, knowing there is a system to help you provide the best care possible. In this way, both practitioners and the public benefit from CPD.

What are the CPD Requirements?

The relevant board’s registration standard for continuing professional development sets CPD requirements for each registered health professional. For example, the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia sets CPD requirements for enrolled nurses, registered nurses, and midwives, and the Pharmacy Board of Australia sets CPD requirements for pharmacists.

Each registered practitioner has specific CPD requirements to stay up-to-date and maintain safe practice. You can find these on the Ahpra website under the board relevant to your profession.

“Health practitioners engaged in any form of practice are required to participate regularly in CPD relevant to their scope of practice to maintain, develop, update and enhance their knowledge, skills and performance to help them deliver appropriate and safe care.” - Ahpra.

The other core attribute of CPD is that it is structured according to best-outcome learning. In Australia, it’s built on robust research about the ideal way to transfer new learning into applied improvements to practice. Part of this structure involves planning, documenting and reflecting on your learning.

At Ausmed, we call this the CPD cycle, and you can read about it here: 'What is the CPD cycle?'

How should you record your CPD?

To manage your CPD, maintain a current and up-to-date portfolio of your activities. You must have a separate portfolio for each CPD period (ie, each yearly registration period). While there are many ways to manage your portfolio, it is advised to do so through online services.

Benefits of managing your CPD using an online portfolio include:

• Flexibility to access the portfolio anywhere and anytime you need.
• Removal of unnecessary paperwork.
• Reduced risk of losing your proof of documentation.
• Easy to access in the case of an audit or a need to share evidence of your professional development with your workplace.

For a more in-depth explanation of a CPD portfolio and why you need one, an upcoming guide ‘What is a CPD portfolio?’ will cover this.

What next?

Once you’ve read this article on the basics of CPD, we recommend reading ‘What is the CPD cycle?’ next!