CPD Guidelines
Continuing Professional
Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is the means by which health and social care professionals maintain and improve their knowledge, skills and competence, and develop the professional qualities required throughout their professional life.
CPD is an integral component in the continuing provision of safe and effective services for the benefit of service users. CPD is an ongoing process that occurs when undertaking any activity relevant to the role of the professional that provides new insight and learning by the professional.
Active engagement in CPD is vital to ensure that health and social care professionals continue to have the up-to-date knowledge and skills necessary for protection of the public. CPD has significant professional value, since engaging with life-long learning allows you to improve and enhance your practice.
You are expected to keep your knowledge, skills and competencies up to date. Through participating in and recording CPD, you are actively ensuring the delivery of safe and effective services for the benefit of your service users. CPD is an important component of the BEAI Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics required by the Executive Committee of the BEAI.
The BEAI Membership Board Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics requires that:
- You must ensure that your knowledge, skills and performance are of a high quality, up to date and relevant to your practice in order to meet the standards of competence that may reasonably be expected of professional Clinical Engineers
- You must participate in continuing professional development (CPD) on an ongoing basis
- You should consider the support and guidance provided by the BEAI regarding CPD
- You must keep a record of the activities you have completed
- As a member, you must comply with the BEAI Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics.
Adapted from Kolb’s Cycle of Experiential learning, the figure below illustrates that CPD is an ongoing process and a range of learning activities should be undertaken on a regular basis. It is expected that at minimum you can demonstrate achieving 30 CPD credits in every 12-month period. It is recommended that you have a process in place to ensure that you engage in a planned way in CPD.
CPD and the Learning Cycle
CPD is a self-directed learning process based on a four stage CPD cycle which includes:
- This is a self-directed review that allows you to gain perspective and ask yourself the fundamental question – where am I and where do I want to get to?
- Where appropriate, you may wish to discuss this with a manager, supervisor or colleagues or, if in private practice, a peer learning group.
- Feedback from others, including service users, can provide insight and enhance understanding of your learning needs.
A review of key documents can also help you reflect on what your learning needs are. These may include:
- Job description
- Competency frameworks
- Performance management review documents / Personal development plans
- Service / Business plans
- Departmental plans and reviews / Service reviews or inspection reports
- Strategic plans
- Health service strategy and planning documents
- Relevant national strategies and research reports.
It is then a case of identifying how you can get there and creating milestones or check points in order to review progress. This stage will ensure you have a guide to follow. It is important to remember that not all learning will be planned. Focus on the outcomes you would like to see realised, rather than a detailed plan of every activity you plan to undertake.
It is likely that your plan will include a mixture of keeping up to date with your area of expertise, learning about new areas and developing new skills. You may also be considering a change in role or organisation. Whatever your plan involves, it should recognise the range of learning opportunities that are available to you.
You must keep a record of your learning goals on a Personal Learning Plan each year. It would be helpful for your Personal Learning Plan to align with your membership renewal date, as this will be the audit period of the BEAI Membership Board, when this process is introduced.
Now is the time to prioritise your learning needs and implement your plan. Your learning and development plan is a guide to aid you to structure your learning. Plans can change and it is important to review regularly to check if the learning needs you listed are still relevant.
Do not underestimate the learning you do every day. Whether you’ve been working on projects, undertaking research as part of your role or recently started a secondment, make sure you make the most of day-to-day learning
The BEAI’s CPD approach is focused on outcomes. That means that we are primarily concerned with the outcome of your learning, or in other words how you have applied your learning to the work you do. This stage includes reflecting how you integrate new learning into your practice, including reflection on each learning activity, the learning you achieved and how you implemented this learning in your practice.
You will also find that there will be aspects of your learning that are not quite ready to be put into action or applied to your work. It is important to note that learning happens incrementally and so there will be things that will likely need to be revisited in your next iteration of the CPD cycle. Reflecting on how you have integrated learning into your work is a critical stage of the learning cycle.
Some questions you may want to ask yourself are:
- What have I learnt?
- Did I achieve my learning outcomes?
- What kind of unplanned outcomes or challenges arose from this experience?
- Which barriers or blocks did I have to overcome?
- How have I applied this learning at work?
- What was the impact of this learning for service users and / or quality service provision?
- What lessons can I take from this experience?
- What was the impact of this learning on my professional practice?
The BEAI recommends that you keep a record of the activities you have completed. Following an introductory period of one year, which members will be notified of, the BEAI Membership Board may audit your compliance with this section of the BEAI Membership Board Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics. If you are called for audit, you will be required to submit the following information:
- Record of your implementation of learning activities that achieved 30 CPD credits of new or enhanced learning/
- Record of your evaluation and reflection of the learning achieved.
- Record of your review of learning needs for the next 12-month period.
- Record of your planned learning activities for the next 12-month period.
CPD Points Guide
The BEAI Membership Board recommends you demonstrate via your CPD records, a minimum number of 30 CPD credits in a 12-month period. This will demonstrate that you are engaged in ongoing continuing professional development.
Generally, one hour of CPD learning activity is equal to one CPD credit where the learning is new or enhanced. CPD credits are self-determined, meaning that you decide how many credits to apply to new or enhanced learning you achieved and how this has impacted your practice.
- Attendance: 1 credit per educational hour
- Invited or keynote speaker:
- First delivery: 1 credit per hour preparation & delivery (to a maximum of 10 credits)
- Subsequent deliveries: 2 credits per hour
- Proffered paper/poster: 1 credit per hour preparation & delivery (to a maximum of 4 credits)
- Organiser / member of scientific / organising committee of a nationally advertised meeting: 1 credit per hour (to a maximum of 5 credits)
- Structured / Certified Study: 1 credit per educational hour
- For structured individual study:
- learning strategy must be agreed with a mentor, specifying the knowledge and skills to be acquired or strengthened, together with the actions to be taken. Learning experiences undertaken must be recorded and the knowledge and skills gained should be described in a reflective practice report.
- Journal reading, undertaken on a specified regular schedule agreed with a mentor or in line with your learning plan, qualifies for CPD credit: 1 credit per educational hour
- Scientific Publication
- Article published in a refereed journal-each principal author: 8 credits, others: 4 credits
- Accepted provisional patent: 5 credits for each author
- Review article, commissioned chapter: 15 credits divided by the number of authors
- Commissioned paper for government department or national advisory body: 8 credits divided by the number of authors
- Non-refereed invited article/book review in a professional scientific publication: 2 credits
- Editor of a multi-author work: 10 – 20 credits (in year of publication only)
- Sole or joint author of a book: 20 – 50 credits (in year of publication only)
- Invited referee of a paper or grant application: 2 credits
- Invited referee of a book: 2 credits per chapter, max 10 per book
- Editor of a peer-reviewed journal: 10 credits per year
- Member of an editorial board: 5 credits per year
- Editor of journal with national circulation: 10 credits per year
- BEAI Committees, other professional bodies / organisations related to your profession
- 5 credits per year
- Holders of senior office in the above: President, Vice President, Honorary Secretary, Honorary Treasurer, Chairperson: 5 additional credits per year
- Health service, governments, standards or international bodies
- 5 credits per year
- Holders of senior office in the above: President, Vice President, Honorary Secretary, Honorary Treasurer, Chairperson: 5 additional credits per year