All aboard for CPDJadbinder Seehra

It is a statutory requirement for all registrants with the

General Dental Council to undertake Continued Professio-

nal Development (CPD) in order to maintain their

registration and hence, their ability to practice dentistry

within the United Kingdom. Historically, CPD was seen as

a key component of the GDC Lifelong Learning Scheme

and is currently undergoing a wide-ranging consultation

and review (GDC, 2012). Suggested changes include the

introduction of a new minimum CPD requirement, annual

CPD declarations to maintain registration and that all

CPD should be verifiable. CPD is viewed as essential for

dentists and dental care professionals to practice in

accordance with the current standards and expected

principles of the GDC (GDC, 2013).

How do I know what CPD I need to undertake? Given

the vast amount of options it can be difficult to decide

what is appropriate. CPD can be delivered in the form of

courses and lectures, training days, peer review, clinical

audit, e-learning and of course, reading journal articles.

Some guidance is provided by the GDC but ultimately, it

is left to the individual registrant to decide. As it stands,

within a five-year cycle dentists and dental care profes-

sionals are expected to undertake 250 (minimum 75 hours

verifiable) and 150 (minimum 50 hours verifiable) hours

of CPD, respectively. The GDC also highly recommends

CPD be undertaken in three key topics per cycle: medical

emergencies (10 hours), disinfection and decontamination

(5 hours) and radiography and radiation protection

(5 hours). In addition, CPD (general or verifiable) should

cover legal and ethical issues, complaints handling and

oral cancer detection. But how do I complete the other

requirements? It may be useful to bear in mind the

definition of CPD as ‘lectures, seminars, courses, indivi-

dual study and other activities, that can be reasonably

expected to advance your professional development as

a dentist or dental care professional and is relevant to

your practice or intended practice’ (GDC, 2013). Recent

revision of the dental course curriculum requires courses

to meet the required learning outcomes and standards as

stipulated by the GDC. This outcomes-based requirement

also extends to CPD and hence, clinicians should consider

this when planning courses they wish to participate in.

Are there any tools that can be used to help me identify

my CPD needs? As part of GDC’s new proposals for

CPD, the use of a Personal Development Plan (PDP) and

reflection has been advocated. PDP’s have been reported

to be both effective in leading to changes in patient care

and personal development of the learner (Evans et al.,

2002). Both clinical audit and peer review have also been

suggested as useful processes that can be used in the

identification of a more coherent and structured CPD

(Bullock et al., 2000). Reflection of clinical performance,

skills and knowledge is becoming a useful tool in CPD.

Although it maybe sometimes difficult to find time to

reflect, reflection can be incorporated into both clinical

audit and peer review. Importantly, it should be

remembered that every positive and negative outcome is

an opportunity to reflect, learn and improve. Maintaining

CPD requirements in a modern healthcare environment

remains a challenging proposition influenced by many

factors. Clinicians working in both primary and second-

ary care face the demands of delivering high quality care

to increasing numbers of patients with complex issues,

whilst maintaining their own professional development.

Sometimes there are not enough hours in a day!

The British Orthodontic Society is firmly committed to

promoting the study and practice of orthodontics and

both maintaining and improving professional standards.

In keeping with these aims, members can fulfill CPD

requirements by attending courses arranged by the

society, the annual conference and reading published

audits and scientific articles published in both the Clinical

Effectiveness Bulletin and Journal of Orthodontics, respec-

tively. Along with attending postgraduate courses and

discussion with colleagues, reading journals is one of the

most frequent forms of CPD undertaken by dentists

(Bullock et al., 2003; Buck and Newton, 2002). Journal-

based CPD has been reported to be an effective way of

undertaking verifiable CPD (Tredwin et al., 2005). We are

currently beginning the process of improving CPD

provided by the Journal of Orthodontics. From March

2015 onwards an expanded Multiple Choice Question

(MCQ) and clinical articles test will be introduced based

on the scientific, review, clinical articles published within

each edition of the journal and supplement editions. In

addition, MCQ tests based on the abstracts of articles that

reflect the GDC learning outcomes/standards will be

included. Up to 4 hours of verifiable CPD will be awarded

EDITORIAL Journal of Orthodontics, Vol. 41, 2014, 271–272

# 2014 British Orthodontic Society DOI 10.1179/1465312514Z.000000000191

per edition. In addition, this CPD will continue to be

available to members via the BOS Virtual Learning

Environment (VLE). Greater access to media-based CPD

through the internet has been shown to be desirable(Bullock et al.,2003).

Whether in primary or secondary care, CPD is key

component of clinical governance. Now more than ever,

the importance of undertaking effective, appropriate

and high quality CPD is clear and cannot be under-

estimated.

ReferencesGeneral Dental Council. Maintaining Quality and Impact of CPD in Dentistry:

A discussion Document. London: General Dental Council, 2012.

General Dental Council. Standards for the dental team. London: General Dental

Council, 2013.

General Dental Council. Continuing Professional Development for dental

professionals. London: General Dental Council, 2013.

Bailey SE, Bullock AD, Cowpe JG, Thomas HS, Yuen-Lee F, Wood M,

Newcombe RG. An evaluation of CPD activity of dentists in Wales. Eur J

Dent Educ. 2013;17:e49–55.

Buck D, Newton T. Continuing professional development amongst dental

practitioners in the United Kingdom: how far are we from lifelong

learning targets? Eur J Dent Educ. 2002 ;6 :36–39.

Bullock AD, Butterfield S, Belfield CR, Morris ZS, Ribbins PM, Frame JW. A

role for clinical audit and peer review in the identification of continuing

professional development needs for general dental practitioners: a

discussion. Br Dent J. 2000;189:445–448.

Bullock A, Firmstone V, Fielding A, Frame J, Thomas D, Belfield C.

Participation of UK dentists in continuing professional development. Br

Dent J. 2003;194:47–51.

Evans A, Ali S, Singleton C, Nolan P, Bahrami J. The effectiveness of personal

education plans in continuing professional development: an evaluation.

Med Teach. 2002;24:79–84.

Tredwin CJ, Eder A, Moles DR, Faigenblum MJ. British Dental Journal based

Continuing Professional Development: a survey of participating dentists

and their views. Br Dent J. 2005;199 :665–669.

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