1 September 2024 (Sunday) - HCPC Standards Updated

 

The HCPC has updated its standards of conduct, performance and ethics  and its guidance on social media.  

 

I poured through both documents… the one which worries me is the bit about social media. It never hurts for me to think about what I’m saying on here. Initially I had a bit of a panic because I can sometimes be a tad scathing about the IBMS and the blood transfusion simulator and anyone and anything which gives me less than absolutely brilliant CPD material.

 

When I post something negative I *hope* people read what I am saying as “I find this less than brilliant for the following reasons…” and not as “this is a load of crap”.
I must take more care to ensure that my comments come over in a constructive way.

8 April 2024 (Monday) - Am I Doing It Right?

I beaver away behind the scenes here copying and pasting stuff from all sorts of sources, openly admitting to my failings with BTLP-TACT and constantly finding fault with the IBMS in a shallow attempt to curry favour with anyone who might be unfortunate enough to have to assess the worth of this blog as evidence of my performing CPD.

So… now’s as good a time as any to winder if I’m actually doing what I’m supposed to be doing. According to the rules at https://www.hcpc-uk.org/cpd/what-is-cpd/ I am supposed to:

 

1. Carry out learning activities on a regular basis.
2. Carry out different kinds of learning activities.
3. Keep a record in the way that is most convenient for you.
4. Carry out activities that might improve your practice and benefit your service users.
5. Take part in an audit if asked.

Well… I think I can take the first two criteria as done. There’s usually a couple of things happening on here every week.

And despite my being told by a previous employer to use their (so-called) “proper” headed A4 paper filed in someone else’s office, the third makes it quite clear that this blog is quite acceptable.  

The fifth hasn’t arisen yet, but if it does I will do as asked.

The fourth one is the tricky one. The first part is OK – I’m clearly doing loads in an attempt to improve what I’m doing… but does it benefit my service users?

 

The trouble here is what is a biomedical scientist’s service user? The medics sending us the blood tests? The patients whose blood we test?

I’m going to take the line that part of the service I provide is imparting the benefits of my forty-odd years to those new to this line of work.

Here’s one of them who’s been looking at blood films with me recently. 

 

1 September 2023 (Friday) - Renewing My HCPC Registration

 

The new Standards of Proficiency for Biomedical Scientist came into effect today. You can read them by clicking here.

I’ve read them… They are rather wordy, aren’t they?

Am I being cynical in wondering how many other biomedical scientists have read them?

 

I can’t help but wonder if the timing is deliberate or by chance as I (and many others) renewed our HCPC registration today. Admittedly I pay in installments, but that is two hundred quid I would rather spend on something (anything) else.

I’ve just seen a posting on one of the work-related Facebook groups asking “what has the HCPC ever done for me?” The posting has got dozens of “likes” and not a single sensible answer…

6 February 2020 (Sunday) - #2000... Time to Reflect

Well… my two thousandth posting on here. Something of a milestone post so I’ll have a little reflection if I may…

I originally started posting my CPD in blog format some twelve years ago. At the time it went down like a lead balloon with my managers (for whom I no longer work). They loudly demanded that if I wanted to waste my time, that was fine, but whatever I post here MUST be reprinted on the official form printed on headed paper. And they told my trainees of the time NOT to do anything along these lines either (even though back then I was the official training officer).
Despite active discouragement I kept going, and here we are all these years later. The blog has a regular following, being read between two and three hundred times each week.

The whole idea of this blog is to provide evidence that I am performing CPD activities in line with the requirements of the Health and Care Professions Council. I shall have a little think about what I actually do with this blog…
You can read  the HCPC’s Standards for CPD by clicking here. Let’s look at each in turn and see how I'm doing:

1. Maintain a continuous up to date and accurate record of my CPD activities
   
   Well… that is exactly what this blog is, isn’t it?
   
   
2. Demonstrate that my CPD activities are a mixture of learning activities relevant to current or future practice
   
   Each blog entry has a “label” below it – this “label” describes what sort of activity it is I’m doing. “reflecting”, “Fritsma Factor Newsletter”, “on-line morphology”… You can search blog entries by these labels by looking at the right hand side of the page and clicking on any of the titles in the “Search for Specific CPD Learning Activities” section. 
   
   
3. Seek to ensure that their CPD has contributed to the quality of their practice and service delivery
   
   
   This is a tricky one… Does what I do here improve what I do on a daily basis? The NEQAS and BTLP exercises might not improve what I do, but at least they show I’m not entirely useless at doing it. But as for service delivery…Periodically I’ll have a brainwave and suggest something to the boss. I blog about those on here under the label of “service improvement” but it has to be said there aren’t that many, are there? There’s something to work on.
   
   
   
4. Seek to ensure that their CPD benefits the service user
   
   Who is the service user? Patients? Medical staff for whom I provide blood test results? Trainees who might learn from my experience? The CPD I do seems to concentrate on “improving me”. Here’s something else to work on.
   
   
5. Upon request present a written profile  (which must be my own work and supported by evidence) explaining how I have met the Standards for CPD
   
   I live in constant terror of being asked to do this. If nothing else I will employ semantics. The standards say I must “seek to…” This blog will provide evidence that I’m trying; if not actually achieving.

Is this blog achieving that which I intend it to do? I’m going to be generous to myself and award it a qualified “mostly”. If any of my loyal readers have any ideas or suggestions about how I might specifically evidence the third and fourth standard, I’m all ears…

 

29 July 2019 (Friday) - Mistakes

The HCPC writes a blog. All the best people do, you know… Today I read something on their blog which made me think.

Standard Eight of the standards under which we all practice says that registrants need to be open and honest when something has gone wrong with the care, treatment or other services that we provide. This includes letting service users and carers know; apologising; and taking action to put matters right if we can.

The standard also says that registrants need to support service users and carers to raise concerns and be helpful and honest in their responses to complaints.

This is a very noble sentiment and *in theory* is all very well.

Mistakes in healthcare are by their very nature terrible. However one needs to bear in mind that mistakes are that – mistakes. Nobody goes into healthcare with the intention of deliberately harming patients.

And one also needs to bear in mind the harm done by ambulance-chasing lawyers looking to sue at the slightest provocation.

If mistakes become learning experiences then practitioners are going to be more inclined to report them.

If they become thinly-veiled witch-hunts then they are not…