The draft consultation document was developed by the College's CPD Policy Working Group, chaired by Professor Stephen May.

RCVS considering ‘outcomes-based’ approach

The RCVS is to begin a six-week consultation with regards to its CPD and lifelong learning policy.

Veterinary surgeons and veterinary nurses are invited to submit their responses to the consultation document, which will be available online from 17 June - 29 July.

The consultation will seek the professions’ views on the current model and ask if they would like to retain the requirement to log a certain amount of hours.

Furthermore, professionals will be asked to share their opinion on potential changes to the online Professional Development Record and how easy they think the system would be to implement.

Developed by the College’s CPD Policy Working Group, the draft consultation document is the culmination of several discussions regarding the longer-term direction of CPD and the possibility of introducing an ‘outcomes-based’ approach.

At present, the RCVS expects veterinary surgeons and veterinary nurses to undertake 105 and 45 hours of CPD respectively. An outcomes-based approach, however, would concentrate less on the number of hours logged and more on interactive, reflective learning.

“Through our discussions about CPD policy, the feeling was that the most constructive way of assessing CPD outcomes would be through the engagement of all our skills as ‘reflective practitioners", explains Professor Stephen May, chair of the Working Group.  

“By moving our CPD policy in that direction, members of the profession will be making more explicit, to themselves and others, their thoughts about what they get out of engaging in CPD and how it will benefit their practice.”
 
He added: “There will be some challenges as far as those who are not accustomed to this sort of approach are concerned, and that is the reason for us doing this consultation on how we achieve the next stage of development.

“We feel this consultation is needed and a move in this direction is appropriate because if we carry on with a purely ‘input-based’ approach to CPD, then it will make us look rather dated and it becomes harder to defend in terms of where the profession is heading.”

Image (C) RCVS