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…