A couple of months ago I got ‘the call’ from our regulator, the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC), to submit my CPD (continuous professional development) record by the start of March. The GPhC is responsible for ensuring all pharmacy professionals maintain their knowledge and skills and remain up to date with practise.  So what was required – 9 records for each year over a 5 year period, 3 records per year that had to cover the fully CPD cycle – reflection, planning, action & evaluation). My first thought was ‘panic’! Why? Well it definitely wasn’t for the lack of completing my professional training requirements over the years. No, it was because I had my records documented in various formats, places and to various degrees of details. What laid ahead was a concerted effort over a week (vacation!) to move all my records into the official CPD tool.

On March 2nd I breathed a sigh of relief as I pushed the ‘submit’ button and then waited for the verdict! Last week the screen at last changed from ‘review pending’ to ‘view report’. I opened it with trepidation and read ‘Congratulations’ and ‘Reflection- excellent, Planning-excellent, Action-excellent & Evaluation-excellent’. Phew!

So although it’s been a stressful few weeks I’m now organised and have a strong record  in ONE tool to build upon and have already added 3 additional records for this year. Having spoken to a number of other professionals (physios, dentists) over the past few weeks many are in similar positions to I was. This certainly served as a ‘wake-up’ call to be organised with all aspects of my record keeping!