Activities of Daily Practice That Can Be Counted as CPD

Hands up who records journal club and grand rounds in their annual CPD activity?

Physicians will often agree that continuing professional development (CPD) hours for Category 1 (Educational Activities) is easily achievable. For many physicians these activities will often form part of their daily work practices. Other activities often discussed are journal club, grand rounds, education sessions, committee meetings and working groups (approved activities), conferences, webinars, presentations, teaching, and the list goes on.

While many CPD activities occur naturally as part of everyday clinical practice, we asked our physicians which aspects of their daily work they recorded as part of their CPD. As Dr Hash Abdeen, Director of Medical Services at Gold Coast University Hospital said, "There are lots of day-to-day activities that physicians undertake without realising that they can achieve quite a bit of your CPD [hours]; it's just part of our usual practice as doctors."

This was echoed by Dr Fahid Hashem, Senior Staff Specialist and endocrinologist at Gold Coast University Hospital and Deputy Chair of the RACP CPD Committee, who said that simply uploading CPD activities can make all the difference to your annual CPD record, "We actually, participate in a lot more CPD activities than we are mindful of. On the one hand, even if we are mindful about them, we record far fewer of them.

Looking for ideas? Here are a few examples of everyday activities our physicians record as CPD that you might also consider including in your own CPD record.

Meetings

Safety and quality meetings

Safety and quality meetings are a regular part of work for many physicians, yet they are often overlooked as a source of CPD. Whether you're reviewing clinical incidents, discussing patient safety or contributing to service improvements, these meetings provide valuable opportunities for learning and reflection.

"I think a lot of us in the public sector think it's relatively easy to go to some of these meetings if you're involved with clinical incident reviews or M&Ms, for example... When you're looking at safety and quality... that's a great opportunity..." – Dr Hash Abdeen.

Clinical incident reviews

Participating in clinical incident reviews is another activity that can contribute to your CPD. Reflecting on patient outcomes and identifying opportunities to improve care are valuable learning experiences that many physicians already undertake as part of their day-to-day work.

"If you're undertaking a clinical incident review and you can be part of... root cause analysis team... or types of review teams... that's part of your CPD, in terms of being able to review those outcomes for those patients." – Dr Hash Abdeen

Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) meeting

For Dr Hash Abdeen, multidisciplinary team (MDT) meetings are an important opportunity to learn from colleagues across specialties. Discussing complex cases with clinicians from different disciplines encourages collaboration and can ultimately lead to better patient outcomes.

"Another great source is an MDT meeting... In rheumatology we have an MDT meeting with ophthalmology around inflammatory diseases... We're also doing one with respiratory... We also have a radiology MDT meeting as well. It's important for us... to work with our interdisciplinary and interprofessional teams very closely to achieve the best outcomes for patients" – Dr Hash Abdeen.

Mortality and morbidity (M&M) meetings

Mortality and morbidity (M&M) meetings are another valuable source of CPD, although the opportunities may differ depending on specialty.

"Mortality meetings are inherently part of palliative care. And we do a lot of mortality meetings to reflect on our patient outcomes and their path to their end of life. That makes three Category 3 very easy for me." – Dr Gauri Gogna.

Dr Abdeen values M&M meetings for the opportunity to discuss challenging cases with a multidisciplinary team, reflect on both positive and negative patient outcomes, and identify ways to improve future care.

"I really enjoy M&Ms in the hospital environment because it gives you the ability to really discuss those challenging cases... You really get to hear about all the different opinions... It's often very rewarding because we do end up with a better outcome for the patient overall... There are times where the outcomes are not so good. That's an important opportunity to learn from those to improve future care..." – Dr Hash Abdeen.

Wok practice planning

Your Professional Development Plan (PDP)

Developing and maintaining your Professional Development Plan (PDP) counts towards Category 2 (Reviewing Performance). For many physicians, it's already part of their annual work practice and provides an opportunity to identify learning goals and plan professional development activities for the year ahead.

"I upload my Professional Development Plan and do it in February every year... it does work well, because it's at the start of the year..." – Dr Anthony Deacon.

Dr Fahid Hashem also reminds physicians that they don't necessarily need to complete separate documentation to meet CPD requirements. Existing workplace processes, including hospital PDPs and mandatory training, may already align with College requirements.

"I think people... misunderstand that you don't have to do multiple forms. You can use your hospital forms... or your College forms... It's same with manager training. In the public sector a lot of us have lots of mandatory training and some of that will lead into your CPD, particularly those around cultural safety." – Dr Fahid Hashem.

Annual Conversation

Like the PDP, many physicians are required to undertake an annual review as part of their work practice. This aligns closely with the CPD requirement for an annual conversation, which falls under Category 2 (Reviewing Performance).

For physicians in private practice, the annual conversation is a valuable opportunity to plan CPD activities, reflect on professional development and set goals for the year ahead.

"The annual conversations come in very useful [in private practice], because you're able to plan with a colleague how you're going to do some of these activities, particularly those that may be more challenging in a private practice environment." – Dr Hash Abdeen.

Dr Gauri Gogna has built her annual conversation into her routine, setting aside dedicated time each year to meet with a colleague and discuss the activities they plan to undertake.

"Working in private practice everything is more challenging. I'm connected with a private consultant who is also a palliative care physician, and we have a long lunch... we do our annual conversation, and we discuss what we want to use. So that's how we run it. It works well..." – Dr Gauri Gogna.

Individual review and feedback

360-degree reviews and other sources of feedback

Love them or loathe them, 360-degree reviews are often used to gather feedback from a range of people, including peers, patients and managers. They provide a broader picture of performance than self-assessment alone and can identify both strengths and areas for improvement.

For Dr Anthony Deacon, seeking feedback was a valuable learning experience, even when it wasn't always easy to hear.

"It was a useful exercise, and I didn't do that for CPD, but I should have!... If you're looking for an activity that's beneficial, particularly for new consultants it is a useful activity to do 12-24 months in. But be warned generally, if you do it properly, you're going to get something that is not nice to hear..." – Dr Anthony Deacon.

Professor Clair Sullivan agrees, saying regular 360-degree feedback provides meaningful opportunities for reflection and continuous improvement.

"I do the 360-degree feedback every few years as well... To me, these are meaningful activities for CPD, because they're outcomes focused as opposed to attending a meeting... I really get to the core of who you are and how you can get better." – Professor Clair Sullivan.

Leadership and training

Not all physicians practise in a clinical setting. Many also undertake leadership, management or teaching responsibilities, with these everyday activities providing valuable opportunities to claim CPD.

Professor Clair Sullivan believes it's important these activities are recognised, particularly as strong physician leadership is increasingly needed across the healthcare system.

"As a director of a clinical department in Queensland Health, I have a lot of responsibilities that aren't directly clinical but are really part of being a physician... There's a whole lot of activities that you undertake as a physician leader, which can be recognised in your CPD. I'm passionate that these are recognised because physician leaders are desperately needed..." – Professor Clair Sullivan.

Teaching trainees also creates valuable learning opportunities. Dr Fahid Hashem says supervising long cases not only helps trainees develop their skills but regularly exposes him to new clinical knowledge and perspectives.

"For me, I enjoy doing practice long cases with trainees... in each presentation, I often learn one or two extra tips... 'Oh, I didn't know that's done these days.' So, I learn... from that as well." – Dr Fahid Hashem.

Data collection and review

Data is everywhere, and healthcare is no exception. Many physicians already collect and review data as part of their everyday work, but these activities can also provide valuable opportunities for CPD by helping to measure outcomes, identify trends and drive continuous improvement.

Professor Clair Sullivan encourages physicians to look beyond activity measures and instead focus on the outcomes that matter most to patients.

"Are we doing a good job as a physician?... What are your patient satisfaction scores? What are your survival rates? What are your complication rates? Then your CPD just becomes part of your daily work, that continuous iterative improvement of your practice." – Professor Clair Sullivan.

For Dr Anthony Deacon, reviewing his own data has helped identify areas for improvement, particularly for procedural work. Colonoscopists in Australia are required to regularly report their performance during a recertification process every three years.

"I keep my own records in addition to information my facility provides at set intervals... Having those liver have been helpful for me in targeting extra attention. I've extended from the standard measures in colonoscopy, to other procedures and different measures such as insertion time. It's been very helpful... you can see it affects the numbers... particularly in my first 12 months" – Dr Anthony Deacon.

Dr Hash Abdeen points out that many physicians are already collecting useful performance data through their workplace. Reviewing outpatient activity, procedural outcomes and complication rates can all provide meaningful insights into clinical practice while contributing to CPD.

"From a hospital clinical governance point of view, it's relatively easy to look at some of the data that you have... There are lots of things you're already doing within your requirements within the hospital system... I think clinical incidents as well; you can monitor trends around complication rates, outpatient data etc..." – Dr Hash Abdeen.

The examples shared by our physicians are by no means exhaustive, but they do illustrate an important point: CPD doesn't always require setting aside additional time. Much of it is already happening through the work physicians do every day. Recognising those opportunities and recording them ensures your CPD record reflects not only the learning you've undertaken, but your ongoing commitment to improving patient care.