New year, new CPD

Look out for the 2009 RCVS Continuing Professional Development Record Cards which have now been sent to all practising vets and Registered Veterinary Nurses.

We appreciate that many of you do considerably more than the minimum requirements – for vets this is 105 hours over three years, an average of 35 hours a year, and for RVNs an average of 15 hours a year, to add up to 45 hours over three years.

Undertaking - and recording – Continuous Professional Development (CPD) is a mandatory professional requirement for veterinary surgeons and RVNs, so please keep your records up to date.

We can ask to see records - and they may be checked during practice inspections as part of the Practice Standards Scheme. If you are a newly-qualified veterinary surgeon, completing the Professional Development Phase will also fulfil your CPD requirements for your first year of practice.

If CPD sounds expensive - don’t be dazzled by all the conferences and courses out there. CPD is about using your judgement to work out what professional knowledge and skills you need to develop, and then deciding how you are going to do this.

You may find activities such as going to particular case-conferences or asking for some in-house training meet your needs. Other ideas include getting together with other practices to organise training sessions or secondments or finding a mentor.

Self-directed learning – personal study such as keeping up to date with relevant veterinary journals - can be effective and economical.

The RCVS Trust Library can help – library members can read over 2,600 full-text electronic journals online, and can borrow from over 30,000 books, including by post. Veterinary nurses can join for free, and for a two- or three-vet practice, a year’s membership is £140.

If you decide to use self-directed learning for your CPD, you must document this by keeping a detailed learning diary. This should set out what you wanted to learn, what you studied, and the outcomes - for example, a change made to a practice protocol.

If you plan and document your study properly, you can count as much self-directed learning as you like. However, vets cannot count more than 10 hours, and veterinary nurses five hours, each year of undocumented study.

For vets, personal study is also a valid route to assessment under the modular postgraduate Certificate in Advanced Veterinary Practice (CertAVP) - and all universities offering assessment must offer assessment-only options for vets not taking courses.

Details of the CertAVP, including modules available at different universities and veterinary schools, can be found online. VNs have the option of choosing accredited modules that can also be counted towards the post-qualification Diploma in Advanced Veterinary Nursing Practice (DipAVN).

Whatever activities you decide to do, all your CPD activity should be systematically planned to meet your own professional needs, and you must keep a clear record of what you’ve done.

Further information about CPD requirements for veterinary surgeons and Registered Veterinary Nurses can be found on the back of the CPD Record Card.