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How to approach your first three years of CPD with Laura Turner
6 Plays2 days ago
Welcome to the General Osteopathic Council (GOsC) podcast. In this episode, Steven Bettles, Head of Policy and Education, speaks with Laura Turner about Continuing Professional Development (CPD). Laura has just completed her first CPD cycle and she and Steven discuss how she found the process, the advantages of tracking your CPD, and how CPD can enhance practice.
Our CPD website has so many great resources to support osteopaths with their CPD and if you have any questions you can always contact us at info@osteopathy.org.uk.
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast and CPD
00:03:04
Speaker
Welcome to In Conversation with the GEOSC, a podcast by the General Osteopathic Council. I'm Stephen Bettles, Head of Policy and Education at GEOSC, and I'm also an osteopath, um which means i also have to do CPD, and that's what we're talking about today. I'm joined by Laura Turner, ah who is an osteopath and one of our council associates.
00:03:26
Speaker
Hello, Laura. Hello Stephen. Hello. you want to, before we go on, do you just want to explain a little bit about what a council associate is for anyone who doesn't know and say a little bit about your yourself? Because we're talking today around CPD and um we'll get to that in a minute, but yeah, just introduce yourself.
00:03:45
Speaker
So I am Laura Turner and i sit on council or I sit, I attend council meetings. so I am a an associate member of council who um has a say within meetings, but I don't get voting, I don't have voting rights.
Developing Future Leaders in Osteopathy
00:03:59
Speaker
So any decisions that are made within council are spoken about and and discussed and I get to provide a newly graduated opinion which is um i've been graduated for two years now so i feel like i'm a little bit past that now so i'm coming up to the end of my time um you maturing yeah yeah i'm just looking at our website around council associates just as a as a sort of um it says the aim of the council associates program is to identify and develop individuals within the osteopathic profession who have the potential to undertake future non-executive positions
00:04:37
Speaker
whether these be at the Geosco and other organizations. And so, yeah, it's ah it's ah it's around um ah opening up the governance aspects of what we do is ah as a professional regulator to those who might otherwise think, yeah, um but you know um I've only just graduated.
00:04:56
Speaker
It's too soon. And in fact, you know you've got to start somewhere. And um and this is this is a good way of kind of... um of understanding that. So you've got an understanding of the workings of the GEOC and of regulation, perhaps more so than some of
Understanding the CPD Scheme
00:05:10
Speaker
your cohorts. You said you you graduated in was it 2022? 2022. Yeah, so it's coming coming up for three years now. So you're in the first year of your CPD, ah the first your first CPD cycle rather than the first year. You were last year of your first CPD cycle.
00:05:27
Speaker
Yeah, exciting times. And we thought we, yeah, and we were, I think, chatting at a council meeting around CPD and ah people's different approaches to it.
00:05:39
Speaker
ah And we thought it might be helpful just to to have a conversation around your experience of of undertaking that first kind of CPD cycle.
00:05:51
Speaker
And and you you mentioned that, I think, also that you've been talking to some of your ah friends from your your own cohort who were obviously going through the same sort of experience as well in terms of meeting the CPD scheme.
00:06:05
Speaker
um And just to talk through any particular aspects that and and to give you the chance to ask questions or make comments or or whatever that might be of use to to others in a similar um situation really.
00:06:18
Speaker
um Shall I just say, I mean, when when we talk about the CPD scheme, so the current CPD scheme was an update of our original one. And this, that that the current scheme, it's not the new scheme anymore because it's been going since 2018.
00:06:34
Speaker
But there are different aspects to it. So it works over a three-year cycle. There's a requirement of 90 hours of activity over that three-year cycle as a minimum. And half of that, at least, needs to be um what's classified as learning with others.
00:06:48
Speaker
and And it includes the elements. And none none of this would be a surprise to anyone undertaking the scheme at the moment, but we still get questions around aspects of it. And and the detail is can be elusive sometimes to people.
00:07:02
Speaker
um So there's a requirement to undertake CPD that reflects the themes of the osteopathic practice standards, not not each individual standard, but the themes, and also reflects the breadth of your own practice.
00:07:16
Speaker
ah that it includes an objective activity. So something that enables you to get some objective feedback and insight into your own practice in some way. And there are different ways in which you can achieve that.
00:07:28
Speaker
and Something um around communication and consent as a mandatory element. And we'll talk a little bit about that later. And just to record to record that, so you've got a an ongoing record of of your activities, really. And the whole thing ends in peer discussion review, which sounds quite formal. And to an extent, it's a formal process.
00:07:52
Speaker
But in some ways also, it's it's just a structured conversation with a colleague that you... um are able to select and to work with uh and you know could very easily be someone you know unlike and friends with potentially or work with you know there are kind of you know lots of uh it's not something that's imposed on you um and that that conversation is where you um are able to demonstrate to to that other person to your peer how you've met the requirements of the scheme and get it signed off. So that that's kind of what we're talking about when we talk about the CPD scheme.
00:08:30
Speaker
So, um yeah, yeah i mean, you're coming up to the end of your first cycle. How how was it has it gone for you? What's been your experience?
Laura's CPD Journey and Challenges
00:08:40
Speaker
It's been quite good. I mean, I think that um especially having just graduated,
00:08:46
Speaker
I found it quite hard knowing where to which courses to do because there are so many things that you can go and And so it's quite overwhelming, I think, to start off with. But then it's quite it's also quite exciting because we are very lucky, I think, as osteopaths, because we can go in any direction and there there's a lot out there for us.
00:09:07
Speaker
um So it's it doesn't have to be too targeted, but I found it quite helpful now that I have a bit of a direction with what it is that I'm wanting to learn. So that's been quite useful.
00:09:18
Speaker
And what what was your approach to to deciding the direction that you would take in terms of your CPD and presumably your practice as well, I guess, really, because that would relate to that. Yeah, I think i've I've always wanted to work with people with chronic um pain and um chronic fatigue.
00:09:35
Speaker
So a lot of my focus is into those sorts of areas. And I was finding more so that I was seeing quite a lot of women. So um I then this year this year in particular, I've targeted all of my <unk>d around women's health concerns and things.
00:09:52
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. And you you mentioned about courses as well. And and I suppose um one one one of the challenges, particularly for a profession where um people are, to to a large extent, not everyone, but a large number of the osteopaths on the register are self-employed. So you've got to fund this. You don't get it as part of your employment as well.
00:10:14
Speaker
um And the going on courses is one way of ah from of meeting your CPD. And it's quite a kind of nice contained, kind structured way of doing that.
00:10:27
Speaker
But have you have you undertaken any CPD that was less formalized or planned do you know as well? Because I mean, that you know there you could you could easily meet those hours without going on the formal course potentially as well.
00:10:42
Speaker
So I am ah regularly attend our Exeter NCORE group meetings, um which happen about three three times a year, four times a year. um And they're all very, very interesting um and involve sort of chatting with others.
00:10:59
Speaker
There's also the online, um the I.O. magazine have articles in them which you can read. And I have done that and then chatted about those with a colleague.
00:11:10
Speaker
um And then done sort of general chats with colleagues about so certain conditions if somebody's come into the clinic or something like that. So
Importance of Recording and Reflecting on CPD
00:11:20
Speaker
the only thing I have with those is that i I do seem to forget to write a lot of them down, which yeah yeah i think i'm I'm assuming that that was that is okay.
00:11:29
Speaker
I think that's something that happens for a ah lot of osteopaths. And when we look at, you know, when we evaluate how osteopaths do CPD and the, you know, what they do and how they do it, um it's not unusual to get that. Well, I do loads of CPD, but I just don't write write it all down necessarily, you know, and or or they just don't recognize it as CPD. They just see it as part of their,
00:11:53
Speaker
daily life you know you see a patient with a condition that you're not that familiar with or you've forgotten some of the details of and you look it up you know and that's kind of how you how you do your job um but all of that is potentially um development, which could count ah as well if it was recorded. And it's the translation of that activity into something that's kind of demonstrable that makes a difference in terms of being able to to to claim that as a CPD.
00:12:24
Speaker
And you mentioned also there about, you know, like reading some of the IEO stuff because they do um ah and sort of CPD articles, don't they, on a particular condition or or whatever that are really quite detailed and then give you some prompts to discuss with others. And it's that discussion with others that, you know,
00:12:45
Speaker
brings it into the kind of learning with others kind of uh category is that something that you've found you know is it does your cpd tend to tend to be learning with others or is it a sort of an equal split between doing stuff on your own and learning with other people as well i think there seems to be a fairly equal slip that split we um I've done quite a lot of reading, but I think that, that like you say, is ah a normal thing for osteopaths. We will just sit and read read about different things and get lost in sort of research holes, as it were.
00:13:19
Speaker
But um yeah, I think a lot of the learning with others would more be on the courses or those chats with colleagues, really. Yeah, we we get asked,
00:13:32
Speaker
around that quite a lot actually about what counts as learning with others. you know If I meet online with colleagues, is that learning with others? And um and we were speaking about this, weren't we, in our pre-podcast discussion around what what counts as learning with others and just just yeah And this this hasn't changed with the kind of advent of the the updated or enhanced scheme. it's It's kind of always been the case, but we've always had those osteopaths to do a combination of activities that, you know, at least half of which should be learning with other people.
00:14:09
Speaker
um And just being in a room with other people doesn't necessarily mean that you are learning with other people. think that's always been the case. um But it's difficult to to recognize sometimes. And and I think what what brings it into that category, truly, of learning with others is that interactive element.
00:14:28
Speaker
But we were saying, weren't we, that it's gaining insight into your own practice, I guess, from those interactions with other people, hopefully, that you're a part of. But you might share those you know conversations with other people, hear discussions and things that help.
00:14:42
Speaker
help you make sense of what you do or to look at it in a different way or perspective. And it's that it's that rather than just sort of sitting down and reading a chapter in a book, it's it's gaining insights and from from from others, I guess, really. And and that that interactive element, that opportunity to sort of contribute to the discussion and things like that.
00:15:04
Speaker
So whether it's in person or online um makes no no difference from that perspective. It's just the fact that you're you will learning from other people and being able to to kind of interact in some way, I guess, is what we're thinking about.
00:15:22
Speaker
There's lots of reflection, isn't it so yeah it' and there? Yeah, there is that. And it doesn't have to be... um complicated reflection. I think that's, I mean, that it bring this brings us on to sort of the record keeping, I guess, in some ways. so um The, you know, one of the requirements of the CPD scheme is to record your activities. And, um you know, as you say, probably all of us as osteopaths miss some of the stuff that we do do um because, you know, time passes and you think, oh, I'll jot that down later and then,
00:16:00
Speaker
You just don't. And two years down the line, you've you know you've no hope of retrieving that. um so um But we don't prescribe how are you do that. You could do it and in an online um form in some way or portfolio or or whatever. or I keep a Word document these days that just kind of with a little template that I just did that shows what I did.
00:16:29
Speaker
a little summary of it, how it relates to the themes of the OPS, whether it was learning with others or not. It's kind of, you know, it's just something that I kind of, you know that that kind of captured the important elements. And I try to do that reasonably quickly after i do that activity. Because if I don't, then it's it's kind of gone. and and And anything that I get that sort of supports that. Like if if I attend something where there's a certificate or there's a set of slides or something like that, I try and just save them within a folder online.
00:17:04
Speaker
just dump them. stuff as an as in so at the end of that period i've got a kind of uh a record of what i've done and some evidence to to to kind of demonstrate that as well i mean is that is that this the sort of approach that you've that you've taken as well Yeah, I currently have about three different places, or I started with with one and I've kind of transitioned. So I started with an Excel document.
00:17:28
Speaker
um Now I'm using something on a thing called Notion, which is like a notepad thing. It means that I can have little toggle notes bits so I can write my reflection or whatever it is that I want to um in there, which I'm finding quite useful.
00:17:44
Speaker
But yes, and I also have a ah folder called CPD. I don't have it all in separate level folders. Presumably that would be quite a good idea. maybe next year or i'll know what ah i've i've never been audited ah as in as an as an osteopath in you know 27 years or whatever it is of being an osteopath i've never i've never been asked to provide anything and i could be the fact that i work at the um the geosk is neither here nor there i could still be selected for
00:18:16
Speaker
for auditing and i i just think you know what would be the easiest way of being able to comply with this if i ever fall into that sort of uh you know please send evidence of so yeah i try and keep it kind of organized but i i do understand that it's it's not always the easiest thing to do um and i used to have you know i've got i look up and i can see some sort of folders here that are probably old cpd folders of stuff that that dates back years that I just when I had just paper copies of things but I try and avoid paper copies these days really um just because it makes life makes life easier for me I think um something that I've I've found quite interesting in one of our chats was about was surrounding um certificates and evidencing what it is that you've done which um I think is is worth mentioning because we didn't
00:19:08
Speaker
I always thought that you'd have to have something really, know, a professional certificate that then showed this exact thing. But you obviously can't have that if you sit down and have a chat with a colleague. or No, no. I think, I mean, that that you know, if you and I were having, it you know, if we were sort of having a general discussion around, you know, a particular approach to patients in a, you know, with a certain condition or whatever or what kind of, you um And we found actually we've we've spent an hour discussing different approaches and what works and the kind of evidence and research behind it and things.
00:19:41
Speaker
You know, we might think at the end of that, well, let's, this this is CPD. We've done an hour CPD here and we both learned something and gained some insights into different approaches and things like that.
00:19:53
Speaker
And we could just write that up, you know, between us kind of think, actually, what have we what have we learned? How does it relate to the OPS? In a very basic kind of reflective, you know, the sort of what, so what, now what, you know, what have what have we done? what has been the impact of that?
00:20:10
Speaker
And is there anything, does it lead to anywhere else? Are we thinking, well, actually, i'm going to change what I did as a result of that, or I perhaps need to do a bit more... development around that and to find out a bit more and it's that recording of of that that that makes it claimable not the fact that you know there's an official certificate um necessarily so certificates are useful in you know as a quick way of you know i've done i've done a weekend course and the cpd provider has given me a certificate to confirm that i did that and you know that's all that's all great but you know it's it's it's not
00:20:46
Speaker
it's not the be all and end all. The main thing is that you've done it and that you've, you know, your reflection and your narrative is more important than the certificate really. Because you might have been asleep for three quarters of it as far as, you know, we don't know.
00:21:01
Speaker
it's It's more about, how you know, how you translate the experience of that into something that's relevant for your practice. And not not in a kind of, you know, we need a 2000 word essay,
00:21:12
Speaker
um explaining that it it it you know it's it should be proportionate and doable but something that just demonstrates the impact of that activity on your on you'll practice really in some way.
00:21:26
Speaker
um I have been asked in the past, you know, i I went to a CPD event and it was absolutely rubbish. Can I still claim it as CPD? And you kind of think, well, the did you gain anything from it?
00:21:40
Speaker
You know, did it, is there anything that you can eke out of that experience that would contribute to your professional development? you know the ah the the The notion is that osteopaths are registered, regulated health professionals, and there's an element of trust that goes with that in terms of you know you know having a certificate is one thing, but being honest and and having integrity in terms of what you claim and do as well is is the other thing, is that you know there's an element of trust involved.
00:22:08
Speaker
and ah
Peer Discussion and Communication in CPD
00:22:09
Speaker
And as I say, I kind of try and jot something down quite quickly. And it may not be, you know, it may not be more than a couple of sentences that just illustrate what it, you know, what it is. Why was that helpful to me?
00:22:23
Speaker
ah That's the habit I've got into, you know, that it's helpful to me. And my role is kind of different. I don't see patients these days. um You know, I stay on the register. I am on the register, but after I don't have to be in order to do my current job.
00:22:38
Speaker
but I do try and you know I interact with a lot of osteopaths and I think about the impact of that on you know my my understanding of osteopathy and and you know it's I could go back to practice at some point you know there's always that possibility so I kind of have that in the back of my mind that if I were to do that i'm not saying I will but you know if I were to do that how would I relate my my development activities to that? What use would it be to me? And it's ah so I try and think of it in in all sorts of different, from all sorts different perspectives, I guess, really, when I record my stuff, but at a fairly top level.
00:23:17
Speaker
And all of that leads to a peer discussion review, like we said. and um One aspect, we thought it might be helpful, I think, didn't we, just to to think about how you know the peer discussion review is a structured conversation.
00:23:30
Speaker
it's not It's not overly complicated and it's not a kind of deep dive into the evidence of your activities. you know If you say to me, yeah I did this, this and this,
00:23:42
Speaker
I'm not going to look at all of your your kind of evidence for that. you know but there's There's, as I say, an element of trust involved. um But we thought one aspect of the peer discussion review is around the um requirement to do some communication and consent activity.
00:24:00
Speaker
And we're currently, ah so at the time of recording, where we're consulting on the potential addition of some elements to that mandatory activity of some work on ah boundaries and on equality, diversity, inclusion um that fall within that kind of communication and consent um sphere as well.
00:24:23
Speaker
but for the current cycle in terms of that conversation it's it's really ah if i were your peer now i would say to you well can you tell me what what you've done uh to meet that requirement to do some activities in communication and consent um what what have done let me know well i feel i feel like i've i've got quite a lot in that at the moment because of having focused everything on women's health things for last year so um Luckily, i can quite happily say that I've done, I've really hit that that mark with them communication and consent.
00:25:00
Speaker
I did a course with SCCO on gynecological presentations and another on um with the mummy MIT physiotherapists. And all of that involved a lot of communication and consent. We were doing internal assessments with mummy MIT, which obviously involves very,
00:25:20
Speaker
very in-depth communication and very, very, very um stringent processes when it comes to gaining a person's consent before prior to doing any any treatment or anything.
00:25:34
Speaker
um So the guidance kind of is not overly prescriptive in terms of the amount. It's more about the outcome than it is about the the hours spent on it. Although the guidance says if you've done around three hours of activity in communication and consent over that period, the three year period, then that's probably sufficient. But it's more about how you kind of reflect on and reflect.
00:26:01
Speaker
and and demonstrate that. And like you said, and from ah from an impact on practice perspective, if you're focusing on women's health, and so they got and and ah what one of the key standards that's referenced within the current peer discussion review form is around A4, the consent and standard within the OPS.
00:26:21
Speaker
um You know, that acknowledges that consent doesn't have to be in writing um in most cases from from patients, but but it is as it should be if you're working on an intimate area and you've you've kind of thought about that and looked at the standards in relation to that and and the implications and impact of that on your practice from that perspective.
00:26:43
Speaker
um So all of that to me sounds very, um ah you know, a sort of a good narrative for having kind of met that requirement.
00:26:54
Speaker
um we We find that a lot of osteopaths might do a specific CPD course, you know, there are providers who will do something on communication consent as a specific,
00:27:08
Speaker
activity we sometimes do that ourselves I will trundle around to regional groups either in person or online and and and do some stuff on communication consent for example um and that might cover everything in one hit or it might be that you you like like you've ah articulated there kind of done bits and pieces the it that fall within a kind of ah a larger course so more clinically based course but that incorporates elements of of communication and consent.
00:27:39
Speaker
um And anything that you do that that helps you think about how you communicate with patients, what you say, the language you use and the impact of that, I think is ah is is uh claimable in the context of that um standard as well so yeah i mean i i i would happily sign off your your communication scent element uh as a result as a result of that conversation because uh Yeah, if you've if you've done a few courses, and we don't, you know, we're not saying, you're right, you know, how many hours, how many minutes of each of those courses was devoted to communication consent?
00:28:20
Speaker
It's kind of, its um it infiltrates everything, doesn't it? It's such a part of everything that you do that it's kind of, you know, difficult to just distinguish, really. It just forms part of that stuff.
00:28:32
Speaker
Yeah. um And how I think about it as well for any kind of thing that you're claiming is, know do what do I do differently now than I might have done three years ago or you know ah or before that particular activity?
00:28:45
Speaker
And if you've got a good narrative as to what that is, then that sounds like pretty good CPD to me. I think it's quite hard because of it because our course our courses were very much centred around communication and and consent.
00:29:01
Speaker
I think because newer newer courses are very hyper aware of the communication consent areas. I think there's I have been very hyper aware of how I communicate with patients and and how they might perceive what it is that I'm about to do or um whether they're in agreement with what with what the treatment is. so I'm not sure that I've massively changed. Obviously, i've I wasn't getting people to sign a piece of paper prior to this. but um that That may be it, mightn't it? I think it's perhaps in your case, it's more about not that you've necessarily changed.
00:29:43
Speaker
It's not that what you were doing before was wrong. It's just that you... you didn't you didn't see so many women with those particular conditions. So there has been a requirement for you to modify and your your your practice and your how you manage the communication consent elements has had to change as a result of the the change in your practice, really. So the the two kind of have gone together, I guess.
00:30:11
Speaker
Yeah, I think, and it's, it is interesting. I think even just just reflecting, obviously I had to think about that just before we were doing the podcast and just reflecting on those different areas.
00:30:23
Speaker
It is, it does make you think and you are likely to have changed things. You just might not be fully aware of what it is that you have changed from doing that. Yeah.
00:30:35
Speaker
when i um When we started to bring in and and to discuss with osteopaths, and this is going back years now before the scheme was introduced, um the notion of a sort of compulsory element on communication and consent.
00:30:49
Speaker
um I remember some osteopaths saying, well, I've been doing this for 30 years. Why on earth do I need to kind of change and ah ah or to do any activity in this area? Because that's what I do all day, every day. And and I did think at the time that and Actually, I've been doing it a long time as well, but it's still, I find it helpful to kind of step back and think about in you know, what you say and how you say it.
00:31:17
Speaker
and And the different different different patients come in and you you need to adapt and and change. You can't say the same thing to everyone. And there are kind of, there are legal requirements that we, ah you know, as healthcare ah practitioners need to adhere to.
00:31:34
Speaker
But there are also those, you know, just the the human requirements so of establishing that therapeutic relationship in a way that's effective and that and that you do communicate with the patients in a way that they can understand and give them the opportunity to ask questions and to and underpin that kind of shared decision making and patient partnership elements of practice.
00:31:57
Speaker
And all of that is, you know, it doesn't just arrive one day and then that's it for the rest of your career. it You know, it takes it's different for every patient I found, you know, that that that you would kind of, you know, you may say similar things in in similar ways, but there's a subtle kind of change and you see people's reactions and you read their faces and you kind of think, actually, no, I need to I need to explain this differently because i'm not I'm not sure that you've understood. Give them the chance to kind of ensure that they have or to kind of step back a little bit and revisit at the next visit. And all of that is complex. and
00:32:32
Speaker
And having the opportunity to not not a kind of tick box, yeah, I've done this, this, this, cs that's fine, I've met that requirement, but to actually think about it at a deeper level and to talk about that with people with colleagues.
00:32:44
Speaker
um You know, even even now when I don't see patients, you know, I i i still think of it as a useful activity. You know, um I know a lot of osteopaths and so I kind of get involved in discussions with those. And I talk to a lot of osteopaths in my professional ah role as well, I guess, really. So, ah yeah, I find that and ah ah a sort of continued source of of interest, really. So i think it is like you said, it kind of, you know, your your attitude and your your approach to communication reflects your changing practice and kind of maturity and that relationship with each individual patient to me really. So was there anything else that,
00:33:30
Speaker
you wanted to ask ah in relation to the CPD scheme. We've talked about what the scheme is, your approach to kind of thinking about it and the kind of things that you've you've found a little bit challenging, your approach to meeting the scheme, your communication consent stuff, how you've how you've approached that and the recording of evidence and things. Is there anything else that comes to mind?
00:33:56
Speaker
I suppose it's just, um it would just be around sort of thinking about the other the other areas of the OPS and the way that we sort of recognise those. And is there, when you do yours, do you have like set titles and for the life of me, I can't remember them all.
00:34:18
Speaker
ah hope yeah But it's ah I've always got the yeah communication and consent and then there's the objective activities. yeah So in terms of in terms of relating to the OPS, so I mean, it's not the individual standards.
00:34:34
Speaker
It's around the themes. And so you've got the communication and patient partnership. so And we've talked like today in terms of the work that you've done around communication. as we we've been discussing, you know, you've kind of you know demonstrated that you've done something in that kind of area.
00:34:50
Speaker
um Knowledge, skills and performance. um Well, I mean, that is almost a given that if you've done some CPD, it's it's kind of enhanced, it can relate to that theme because it either enhances your knowledge of a particular um area of practice or particular skill, um you know, it's enabled you to kind of enhance what you do and the way you do it and those are those kind of things. So that will tend to be a ah kind of you know demonstrable in most activities.
00:35:24
Speaker
The safety and quality in practice. um Again, will come up in a lot of activities, particularly the kind of clinically based practical application ones. um But you've got you know stuff in there around taking case history, patient evaluation, um monitoring of treatment, those those kind of things. And the taking you know taking of a case history and what that should look like and how you record information, those kind of things as well.
00:35:54
Speaker
And then the professionalism one, which has got the most standards in it of all of those themes. And sometimes osteopaths can be a little bit confused as to how they they they meet those um that particular thing. But it covers a lot of stuff, confidentiality, you know patient notes, storage and destruction of patient notes.
00:36:13
Speaker
um honesty and integrity, a lot of ethical kind of issues that the um the but come up could relate to that particular thing. ah Boundaries, you know massive area in terms of establishing and maintaining effective boundaries with patients, um not just in terms of sexual boundaries, but the kind of, you know, the more complex, subtle, nuanced,
00:36:37
Speaker
boundaries that that apply to to to to you know all osteopaths who are sort of seeing patients and how you navigate those complexities so that's a that that's a a sort of big area for um uh the professionalism theme as well but also things like supporting colleagues um managing a practice and how you
Aligning CPD with Osteopathic Standards
00:36:58
Speaker
offer support to others and those kind of things you know some of the more ah not always clinically based stuff. Some of the more complex um sort of practice management type elements might come under that.
00:37:13
Speaker
um so So, yeah, there's often most activities, certainly things that I kind of do, most activities, it it would be very rare for only one theme to to relate to that activity. you know Generally, it's two, often three. um and And in many cases, each of those themes kind of could crop up at some at some point.
00:37:38
Speaker
And the um you know in terms of the the requirement of the APS, of the um CPD scheme, It's about, you know, doing something in relation to those themes, you know, not every week, not every month, not every year even, you know, it's within that three-year cycle. So it's very achievable.
00:37:56
Speaker
The thing sometimes people forget, I think, is around sir relate making making sure that your activities reflect the breadth of your practice. So if you do a particular, have a particular approach to treatment or, you know, you do a lot of sports stuff, for example, or like you said, you know, you you you're trying to focus on treatment of women, women's health and things like that, that that will be reflected in your activities to an extent.
00:38:19
Speaker
Or if you use particular adjunctive therapies, if you use, um you know, dry needling or acupuncture in some way that actually you'll do some you do some stuff within your CPD that relates to that if it's a sort of large chunk of your practice.
00:38:33
Speaker
it it it would seem wrong to ignore that in your in your CPD planning and provision as well. So yeah, that that that that kind of thing. And it it you know generally that will happen dynamically because you tend to do stuff that, or one tends to do stuff that you know we're interested in really.
00:38:53
Speaker
um But it can be that you get to the end of that three-year cycle and you think, oh, gosh, I've just got on with it and I haven't actually thought about doing some some work to keep those other areas up to date.
00:39:06
Speaker
So I probably need to, if not this time, then in my next cycle or something. Yeah. Yeah, I think I was finding that i was just ticking all of the boxes when I did my registration again. Yeah. but Yeah, I've done all of those, but then I was questioning whether or not actually... Have I really?
00:39:21
Speaker
But I suppose... Yeah. Professionalism-wise, we're always thinking about that. We're always thinking about Yeah, there's always something. And I kind of think that is... um in terms of, yeah, that filling in that out kind of when you renew your registration and you say, what have I done? And there's a difference, isn't there, between have I done the objective activity? And that could be, you know, there's a whole range of things that could could cover that, whether it's a, you know, patient feedback or some sort of audit or peer observation or case case-based discussions with colleagues, those kind of things.
00:39:51
Speaker
There's different ways of achieving that. But it feels like when you've done it, you've done it. Whereas with the the um aligning to the OPS themes, it's kind of, you know, I think of that every time. It's not just a one-off event. I kind of do that every time. So yeah, it looks every year like you're doing the same thing, but but it's just because that's, you know, pretty much everything relates to one theme or another.
00:40:14
Speaker
um It's been helpful too to to kind of think about how how that does relate. And we found with, um you know, although...
00:40:26
Speaker
yeah There was some questioning of well why is there a communication consent mandatory activity you know when we when we set the scheme up? um And that was you know it was designed in collaboration with osteopaths. It wasn't something that was kind of fun you know just sort of dreamt up in a back room at osteopathy house and imposed on the profession. you know It was done collaboratively.
00:40:48
Speaker
But we've noticed, you know, one of the benefits
Concluding Reflections on CPD
00:40:50
Speaker
of that is that the um concerns and complaints around communication and consent have have fallen over that period.
00:41:01
Speaker
So, you know, you get a whole year when there isn't a kind of issue around consent, you know, in terms of concerns and complaints. data, you know, so that that's that's a good thing. And, you know, there's there's certainly an association ah between mandatory activity in that area. I think people are just generally more familiar now with the standards. And it's not necessarily an intimate kind of every every standard you can recite.
00:41:27
Speaker
you you know But it's some it's an increased familiarity with what the standards are and what they mean and how your activities relate to those as well, which I think has been helpful for practitioners. so Yeah, well, I hope for people listening that that that that kind of has has been helpful. I think, um you know, for me, it's it's ah it's around CPD being a ah sort of a dynamic and meaningful set of activities over a period of time rather than a kind of you know a tick box you know i've done that i've done that i've done that you know let's tick it off because osteopaths have always tended to do quite a bit of cpd um but they just haven't always been great at recording that and uh you know that's what we as professionals have to do uh how about you any final any final thoughts or comments no i don't i think that that's all been really helpful for me i think um
00:42:23
Speaker
actually going back over what I have done has been quite helpful as well. And um I hope it's been really helpful for other people too. think it's some it just interesting reflecting and speaking to colleagues that are other healthcare care professionals is also quite interesting just because they they also have to do all of this.
00:42:42
Speaker
um And, you know, there is, like you said, plenty available that is free, it's online and we can just go and watch something, read something and have a discussion with a colleague. It doesn't have to be a big £500 course that then you've got to record and things. So I think that's it's really good to take away.
00:43:05
Speaker
um and I think that there's always always somebody that is prepared to have a conversation to also tick off their CPD ah aspect to it as well, which um I think is something that's always worth us remembering.
00:43:18
Speaker
Exactly. Well, thank you so much for for joining us today. um If anyone has any questions in response to this episode, please email us at info at osteopathy.org.uk.
00:43:31
Speaker
And you can also take a look at the um wide range of information on our CPD website, cpd.osteopathy.org.uk. Thanks and see you next time.