Explain the Importance of Continuing Professional Development for Anaesthetic Technicians

SAMANTHA BAXENDALEHAWKES BAY DHB

Explain the importance of continuing professional development for anaesthetic technicians.

Continuing professional development (CPD) for healthcare professionals is an important strategic instrument for improving healthcare.

I am passionate about education and training and enjoy sharing my knowledge. When the introduction of compulsory CPD for Anaesthetic Technicians was highlighted during our recent registration with the Medical Science Council I started to research what this all meant and how it would impact our profession. Although it is something many of us do there has never been a formal need to complete this. As the Charge Technician at Wakefield Hospital I wanted to be able to help my team understand what was expected and how we could achieve it.

This essay will explain the purpose of CPD and how good effective CPD makes for a better practitioner. I will explain what effects it has on both individuals, organisations and in turn the patients. I will discuss what CPD actually is, its purpose and how it can be achieved. To accomplish this it is important that I discuss the modalities of adult learning and the varied needs of each individual and how this can affect the learning activities chosen and the outcomes they achieve.

To evaluate the importance of CPD in healthcare first we need to establish a definition. CPD is not a new concept. Lifelong learning, competency markers and many other names have been given to this and it has been studied for many decades.

The following definition of CPD was developed back in1986 by the Construction Industry Council (UK). However, Friedman et al. (2000) found that it was still the most commonly cited definition of CPD among UK healthcare professional bodies in 1999.

The systematic maintenance, improvement and broadening of knowledge and skills, and the development of personal qualities necessary for execution of professional and technical duties throughout the individual’s working life.

CPD can be seen to have multiple purposes:

•CPD is concerned with maintaining your knowledge and skills and in the case of healthcareensuring safe practices and remaining competent; in other words, CPD is about keeping up-to-date.

•CPD broadens knowledge and skills. CPD is intended to support future professional development and in turn giving the potential to expand your scope of practice.

•CPD develops personal qualities necessary to execute professional and technical duties; such personal qualities that may be needed toachieve the above two purposes.

The label “CPD” was specifically chosen to embrace these diversities in the purpose of post professional qualification development. Gardner (1978: 2-3) wanted the label to incorporate informal learning that would normally be achieved as part of actual practice. “CPD” was chosen because it did not suggest a divide between education and practice. It was intended that the term would be a more formal and more public way of organising what health professionals learned informally as part of their working lives.

The purpose of CPD depends on its intended beneficiary The first purpose clearly benefits clients and employers, but also contributes to the reputation of the profession as a whole and the professional body as well as public interest.The second purpose above relates largely to the individual professional as the beneficiary. CPD supports individual professionals in developing and broadening their knowledge and skills, which can then support their career development. The third purpose benefits individual professionals, but also affects clients and employers. All these purposes can benefit wider stakeholder groups, though perhaps the first purpose benefits them more directly.

Although the three different purposes listed above are contained in this popular definition of CPD, it must be recognized that not all professional bodies define CPD in this way (Friedman et al., 2000: 47). Research indicated that a substantial number did not define CPD as systematic or planned. Also, a number of professional bodies included other characteristics in their definitions. For some, CPD explicitly benefits stakeholders beyond the individual professionals themselves: the profession, the professional body, employers, society, or the general public. The Department of Health (UK) identifies CPD as a way of maintaining standards of care; improving the health of the nation; and recruiting, motivating and retaining high quality staff.

CPD is a process that involves different phases. Some professional bodies regard CPD as being the sole responsibility of individual practitioners. Other professional bodies expect practitioners to assess their CPD in relation to only one or two of these phases, and fewer still audit these returns.

In contrast, however, many healthcare professional bodies have taken responsibility for supporting selected phases, and provide not only measurement of one or more phases, but also take responsibility for the output itself. They do this by providing CPD events and learning opportunities, as well as by providing detailed formats that shape the output contributions of individual practitioners.

Now we know the meaning and purpose of CPD we need to establish how we achieve CPD. As healthcare professionals we take part in activities that provide us with learning outcomes these can be formally categorized as learning activities and non-learning activities.

The two fundamental criteria to distinguish learning activities from non-learning activities are:

• The activity must be intentional (as opposed to random learning), so the act has a predetermined purpose;
• The activity is organised in some way, including being organised by the learner himself/herself; it typically involves the transfer of information in a broader sense (messages, ideas, knowledge, strategies).

Intentional learningis defined as “a deliberate search for knowledge, skills, competences or attitudes of lasting value”.

“Definition based on the EU definition of Learning Activities”

The intention of learning formulated before starting the activity, by the learner or by another individual is the crucial criterion. It is the intention to learn that distinguishes learning activities from non-learning activities. Of course a number of activities whose main purpose is not learning may also produce learning. For example: when entering a sport competition you might improve your own performance although there might not be a formulated intention to do that. This case should be considered as a non-learning activity because, although learning may be generated, it is just a by-productof the activity. In other words a non-learning activity can produce the same type of outcomes as a learning activity.

Each individual will choose their type of learning activity, which best suits, their needs. Adults learn differently to children it is important that we understand this.

Andragogy (adult learning) is a theory that holds a set of assumptions about how adults learn. Andragogy emphasises the value of the process of learning. It uses approaches to learning that are problem-based and collaborative rather than didactic, and also emphasises more equality between the teacher and learner.

Andragogy as a study of adult learning originated in Europe in 1950's and was then pioneered as a theory and model of adult learning from the 1970's by Malcolm Knowles an American practitioner and theorist of adult education, who defined andragogy as "the art and science of helping adults learn" (Zmeyov 1998; Fidishun 2000).

Knowles identified the six principles of adult learning outlined below.

•Adults are internally motivated and self-directed

Adult learners resist learning when they feel others are imposing information, ideas or actions on them (Fidishun, 2000).

Adults will move toward more self-directed and responsible learning as well as to foster the student's internal motivation to learn.

•Adults bring life experiences and knowledge to learning

experiences.

They like to be given opportunity to use their existing foundation of knowledge and experience gained from life experience, and apply it to their new learning experiences.

•Adults are goal oriented

Adult students become ready to learn when "they experience a need to learn it in order to cope more satisfyingly with real-life tasks or problems" (Knowles,1980 p 44, as cited in Fidishun, 2000).

•Adults are relevancy oriented

Adult learners want to know the relevance of what they are learning to what they want to achieve.

•Adults are practical

Adult learners easily adopt active participation in simulation and the opportunity to learn from real life situations.

•Adult learners like to be respected

Adult learners should be empowered and respected to enable them to achieve their goals.

Now that I have outlined the purpose of CPD and how it can be achieved it is important to look at the impact of CPD. The implementation, take up and participation in CPD impacts upon not only the individual required to participate in it but also the employing organisations.

When considering the impact of CPD it is important not to assume that they are all negative. Firstly lets consider impacts on organisations.

The main negative impact for organisations would be the cost implications. These costs include financial impacts but also cost in productivity. With ever tightening budgets and reduced staffing numbers any resources set aside for CPD needs to be used effectively.

If we regard CPD as any method to improve health professionals' skills the total resources devoted to it are extremely high. Direct UK NHS spending on continuing professional development in 1999-2000 was about £1bn ($2bn). Resources for health care are scarce, and money spent on CPD could otherwise be used for direct patient care. For scarce resources to be devoted to CPD, the relative cost effectiveness of different educational interventions must be established, and those offering the most value for money must be implemented.

However on a positive aspect, organisations that invest in staff education and CPD recruit easier, have lower staff turnover and employ a highly skilled workforce. CPD ensures professionals are capable, competent and well trained in order to effectively contribute to organisational goals and service provision.

CPD is a key part of professional life for any health professional and underpins the value of the professional qualification.

It is recognised that there are many professional and personal reasons why an individual may wish to undertake CPD, including to:

•Improve your career prospects by achieving additional qualifications

•Respond to changing conditions at work

•Achieve advancement at work

•Change career

•Understand the latest developments in your field

•Develop your knowledge of the environment in which you work

•Be better at doing your job

•Achieve personal development

•Meet the requirements of professional bodies

Every member has an obligation under their regulatory body to maintain the currency of their professional qualification through CPD.

All members of a registering body are responsible for developing their own annual CPD plan, evaluating their CPD activities and keeping a record of the activities they undertake. To comply with each registering body’s requirements can impact greatly on the individual. It may take up time, which may otherwise be used for personal activities. If your organization has a very limited budget you may have to fund part or all of your learning activities.

It is also pertinent to mention that the third possible group, which may be directly impacted by CPD, is our patients. If their healthcare professional has an established CPD programme with clear objectives that are relevant to their practice they will in turn receive the highest level of care.

In summary the importance of CPD is clear. With a well planned CPD program in a supportive organisation the benefits are paramount.

First, it should be emphasised that the concept of CPD is not new. Effective professionals in all fields have always realised the importance of new knowledge, improved skills and developing personal qualities. In essence CPD is simply part of good professional practice. What is new, however, is the greater importance and relevance of CPD to professional success. A study performed in the UK (Welsh and Woodward, 1989) identified the following six reasons to account for the growing importance of CPD:

Competence

It has been estimated that the knowledge gained in some (particularly hi tech) degree courses has an average useful lifespan of about four years. While this will vary according to the discipline, it does nevertheless highlight the increasing need to maintain an active interest in keeping up to date with changing technology, practices, legislation and operational procedures. If, at the same time, professionals have expectations of increased managerial responsibility the need to acquire new skills and knowledge is even more acute.

Consumerism

The development of a more affluent consumer society has also resulted in a better informed and more sophisticated public. One consequence of this trend is that they expect a higher duty of care . Again the skills acquired during an initial training period or during higher/further education may not equip new staff for this role.

Litigation

The health professions are increasingly at much higher risk from claims of negligence than in the past. Professional indemnity (PI) insurance premiums have risen considerably in recent years. CPD may not totally eliminate PI claims, but could lead to lesser claims, and in turn lower premiums.

Standards

One of the primary roles of professional bodies is to safeguard standards of competence. CPD has a key role to play in the communication of agreed standards and in ensuring that members comply with specified procedures.

As healthcare professionals we can all get by on the bare minimum, turning up to the mandatory study days and the odd conference to give us enough points so that if we are audited we have met requirements. However, with well planned, relevant CPD, we can progress professionally which is linked to pay and as healthcare professionals can deliver the highest standard of care using the most up to date and safest techniques making our patients outcomes positive. After all that’s the reason we all do this job, isn’t it?

Bibliography

UK – General Medical Council - Continuing professional development; guidance for all doctors. - 2012

International Accounting Education Standards Board – Approaches to continuing professional development. - June 2008

Queensland occupational therapy fieldwork collaborative - - 2007

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