CPD activities that meet the standard

Codes and guidelines

Activities that may meet the standard

The CPD registration standard and guidelines provide information about the range of CPD activities that meet the standard.

The following table* lists examples of activities that are likely to meet the standard.

Example activity	It probably is learning and development if …
Attend a seminar	You record how the seminar content met your planned learning needs and how it built on your knowledge and/or competence, kept you up to date, or improved patient outcomes.
Online learning	You enrol in online learning related to your practice and you record how the content met your planned learning needs and how it built on your knowledge and/or competence, kept you up to date, or improved patient outcomes.
Meet with colleagues Is likely to meet the interactive setting CPD¹²	You organise a time to catch up with a professional colleague/s to brain storm ways to manage a difficult patient. You take notes about the discussion and how what you learnt might improve your patient’s outcome. You each sign and date your own notes.
Practice observation May meet the interactive setting CPD¹²	You spend time observing a professional colleague (may be from a different profession) and record your reflection on how you built on your knowledge and improved your patient outcomes. If you spend time discussing your observations with a colleague, then this may be interactive CPD.
Read journal articles	Even though it’s not recorded in your CPD plan you read some recent, peer reviewed journal articles about the management of a patient’s condition and update your portfolio to record how the information is relevant to your practice and how what you have learnt will change your patient management.
Work-based learning	You attend a professional development workshop (content that meets the objectives set out in the CPD registration standard) that your employer has organised and record how what you learnt built on your knowledge and/or competence.
Cultural safety training	You attend cultural safety training and record how what you learnt has built on your knowledge and will improve patient outcomes
Higher education	You enrol in a course related to your practice and record how what you learnt has built on your knowledge and/or competence, kept you up to date, or improved patient outcomes.

Activities that may not meet the standard

The following table* lists examples of activities that are unlikely to meet the standard.

Example activity	It probably isn’t learning and development if …
Degree in an unrelated discipline	Your further degree is not directly applicable to your current area of practice and you cannot demonstrate a strong connection between what you are learning and your current practice.
First aid/CPR	You are required to attend First aid or CPR training in addition to the minimum hours set out in the standard.
Meet with colleagues	You meet with professional colleague/s informally and have a discussion about your frustration about a difficult patient. You don’t discuss the case presentation or management options thoroughly and you don’t take notes.
Using social media	You are logging the time you spend tweeting and on Facebook as CPD activities but do not record how what you learnt built on your knowledge and/or competence, kept you up to date, or improved patient outcomes.
Voluntary work	You are volunteering because you see it as a good thing to do but it’s not clear what you learnt or how it has contributed to your professional learning and development clear what you learnt or how it has contributed to your professional learning and development.
Committee work	You simply log that you are a member of a committee and do not describe how this is relevant to your practice and contributes to your learning and development.
Teaching	You are repeating a session you have run before or teaching a class where your own learning and development is not taken forward.
Gaining practice building information	You are finding out how to increase your patient numbers for your business purposes and this does not improve your clinical knowledge and/or competence, keep you up to date, or improve patient outcomes.
Attend a seminar	You attend a seminar about a condition or technique that you are interested in but that is unrelated to your area of practice and is therefore unlikely to improve your patient outcomes. However, if you’re planning to expand your scope of practice³ then this may meet the requirements.
Planning and/or reflection	The standard requires you to spend 20 hours doing CPD and your planning and reflection time doesn’t count towards this.

* Tables draw on content developed by the General Chiropractic Council UK.

¹ Interactive means learning that involves a two-way flow of information and occurs with other practitioners, such as face-to-face or interactive online education.

² While Chiropractors are not required to complete interactive or interprofessional CPD, the Board encourages interprofessional and interactive learning activities that satisfy the criteria for CPD listed in the CPD standard.

³ Scope of practice means the professional role and services that an individual health practitioner is educated and competent to perform