Continuing professional development requirements for UK health professionals: a scoping review

Objectives This paper sets out to establish the numbers and titles of regulated healthcare professionals in the UK and uses a review of how continuing professional development (CPD) for health professionals is described internationally to characterise the postqualification training required of UK pr...

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Main Authors: Barbara Ryan, Alison Bullock, Marek Karas, Nik J L Sheen, Rachel V North
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMJ Publishing Group 2020-03-01
Series:BMJ Open
Online Access:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/10/3/e032781.full
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author Barbara Ryan
Alison Bullock
Marek Karas
Nik J L Sheen
Rachel V North
author_facet Barbara Ryan
Alison Bullock
Marek Karas
Nik J L Sheen
Rachel V North
author_sort Barbara Ryan
collection DOAJ
description Objectives This paper sets out to establish the numbers and titles of regulated healthcare professionals in the UK and uses a review of how continuing professional development (CPD) for health professionals is described internationally to characterise the postqualification training required of UK professions by their regulators. It compares these standards across the professions and considers them against the best practice evidence and current definitions of CPD.Design A scoping review.Search strategy We conducted a search of UK health and social care regulators’ websites to establish a list of regulated professional titles, obtain numbers of registrants and identify documents detailing CPD policy. We searched Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracs (ASSIA), Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Medline, EMCare and Scopus Life Sciences, Health Sciences, Physical Sciences and Social Sciences & Humanities databases to identify a list of common features used to describe CPD systems internationally and these were used to organise the review of CPD requirements for each profession.Results CPD is now mandatory for the approximately 1.5 million individuals registered to work under 32 regulated titles in the UK. Eight of the nine regulators do not mandate modes of CPD and there is little requirement to conduct interprofessional CPD. Overall 81% of those registered are required to engage in some form of reflection on their learning but only 35% are required to use a personal development plan while 26% have no requirement to engage in peer-to-peer learning.Conclusions Our review highlights the wide variation in the required characteristics of CPD being undertaken by UK health professionals and raises the possibility that CPD schemes are not fully incorporating the best practice.
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spelling doaj-art-629ebc1a74e24e8ab3e8a1d10c11e7412024-12-06T09:55:08ZengBMJ Publishing GroupBMJ Open2044-60552020-03-0110310.1136/bmjopen-2019-032781Continuing professional development requirements for UK health professionals: a scoping reviewBarbara Ryan0Alison Bullock1Marek Karas2Nik J L Sheen3Rachel V North418 Department of Gastroenterology, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, IrelandSchool of Social Sciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UKSchool of Optometry and Vision Sciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, South Glamorgan, UKSchool of Optometry and Vision Sciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, South Glamorgan, UKSchool of Optometry and Vision Sciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, South Glamorgan, UKObjectives This paper sets out to establish the numbers and titles of regulated healthcare professionals in the UK and uses a review of how continuing professional development (CPD) for health professionals is described internationally to characterise the postqualification training required of UK professions by their regulators. It compares these standards across the professions and considers them against the best practice evidence and current definitions of CPD.Design A scoping review.Search strategy We conducted a search of UK health and social care regulators’ websites to establish a list of regulated professional titles, obtain numbers of registrants and identify documents detailing CPD policy. We searched Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracs (ASSIA), Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Medline, EMCare and Scopus Life Sciences, Health Sciences, Physical Sciences and Social Sciences & Humanities databases to identify a list of common features used to describe CPD systems internationally and these were used to organise the review of CPD requirements for each profession.Results CPD is now mandatory for the approximately 1.5 million individuals registered to work under 32 regulated titles in the UK. Eight of the nine regulators do not mandate modes of CPD and there is little requirement to conduct interprofessional CPD. Overall 81% of those registered are required to engage in some form of reflection on their learning but only 35% are required to use a personal development plan while 26% have no requirement to engage in peer-to-peer learning.Conclusions Our review highlights the wide variation in the required characteristics of CPD being undertaken by UK health professionals and raises the possibility that CPD schemes are not fully incorporating the best practice.https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/10/3/e032781.full
spellingShingle Barbara Ryan
Alison Bullock
Marek Karas
Nik J L Sheen
Rachel V North
Continuing professional development requirements for UK health professionals: a scoping review
BMJ Open
title Continuing professional development requirements for UK health professionals: a scoping review
title_full Continuing professional development requirements for UK health professionals: a scoping review
title_fullStr Continuing professional development requirements for UK health professionals: a scoping review
title_full_unstemmed Continuing professional development requirements for UK health professionals: a scoping review
title_short Continuing professional development requirements for UK health professionals: a scoping review
title_sort continuing professional development requirements for uk health professionals a scoping review
url https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/10/3/e032781.full
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AT nikjlsheen continuingprofessionaldevelopmentrequirementsforukhealthprofessionalsascopingreview
AT rachelvnorth continuingprofessionaldevelopmentrequirementsforukhealthprofessionalsascopingreview