CPD (Childish Piffling Details)

Don't misunderstand me. I think it's right and proper that we all keep our skills and knowledge up to date and constantly assess our performance on a regular basis. Hey, I'm no saint, the halo slips from time to time, and I don't do every single CPPE course that comes along, as they don't always have relevance to my area of work.

I have a friend/colleague who works in such a rare area of pharmacy that there is no formal CPD to work from. His area is so specialised that if anyone was to write a course on it, it would have to be him because nobody else does what he does. Who would mark it, assess it or verify that it was appropriate to his needs? Well, maybe his clients and customers. If they were dissatisfied with his performance, they would vote with their feet (well, to be precise, their orders and cheque books).

The CPD isn't the issue. It's how to record something which has no rule book? It's easy to record how you've had a bright idea and discussed it with Mary, your regular locum over a coffee break, and realised that you should make some notes to bring up at the next meeting. If someone wants an answer right now or you are going to lose your order and therefore your income, you need to find out the answer correctly, first time and quickly. Otherwise, kiss your order goodbye! So how do you record it?

The problem seems to be with those who are charged with regulating us. They need to be able to tick the boxes which say "Evidence submitted? Y/N". It's a pass or fail with no quality control built in. Are you really a better pharmacist because you've done a course about "Getting your 5 a day" when you don't work in a sector which deals with patients at that level? I don't think so. What do you think? Answers allowed to the Blog, or why not start a thread on the Forum? Go to the web site www.locumpharmacistuk.com and click on the link to The Forum. Have your say instead of grumbling to yourself like I do on this blog. I'm not always right, just most of the time!