Supporting CPD

Whose responsibility is it to support Continuing Professional Development? Should employees be pursuing their CPD on their own time or should the employer be providing time and the opportunities for CPD?

In this age of tight budgets, time traditionally allocated to professionals to pursue CPD has often been slashed, in some cases to the point of nothing. In the organization I currently work for, clinicians get a paucity of funding and no time formally dedicated with the exception of few in-service times totaling 1-2 hours a month. In the past, employers have paid for multiple days off and expensive courses, seminars, or workshops offered outside of the facility, sometimes even paying airfare to another city or country.

One of my views on the issue is from the perspective of competency. Yes, professional staff are regulated and have a personal responsibility to maintain their competency. If a clinician want to change career direction and take a course that has little relevance to their current patient population, I do not think it is the responsibility of the employer to fund that education opportunity. Now, if the employer values the employee and see the potential for a different role in the organization, then by all means the employer could support that employee. But, if the employee is trying to establish or maintain a competency that is specific to either the workplace or the patient population, the employer should completely be funding those opportunities. This education is mandatory and therefore the employer is liable to ensure that staff are properly prepared. To do anything less puts patients, the employee, and the organization at risk.

Managers of rehabilitation staff sometimes lack the knowledge to know what types of CPD opportunities truly add to the capacity of the organization. To help with this, it is important that "professional practice leaders" be identified and their opinions held paramount in decisions of what competencies are required and what education is necessary to establish and/or maintain that competency.

The Physio Wonk