Learning is the Best Insurance Policy

I recently spoke at the Irish Institute of Radiography and Radiation Therapy’s annual conference when their new online CPD and membership system was launched. Before demonstrating the site I shared a few observations with the conference about CPD.


I first congratulated the IIRRT on embracing an output based approach to CPD. This was wholly in line with the trend amongst professional bodies. Whilst this is most pronounced amongst other health professional bodies other professions are following suit. Simply put what matters more than the time you spend on CPD is its impact, for example, on patient care. At this conference whilst the certificate of attendance is important, what arguably matters more is what delegates discovered at the conference that they could put into practice.

There is a clear change in the role of professional bodies. It is not only about protecting members when problems occur, although that remains important, it is also about proactively encouraging members, to commit to continuous development so they have the skills required to maintain high quality professional practice.

In other words ongoing learning is the best insurance policy.

In this context CPD should be seen as less an encumbrance and more as an opportunity to demonstrate commitment to development. In making that statement at the conference there was already evidence that I was ‘preaching to the converted’. A visit I made on the previous day to the ‘Breast check’ study day in Dublin confirmed that Radiographers and Radiation Therapists were indeed fully engaged in CPD.

I listened to a number of examples of high quality CPD practice. One radiographer/radiation therapist talked about attending a course; bringing the learning back to the workplace and discussing with the peers which led to a positive change in practice, that was evidenced by the research presented at the study day. There were clearly lots of other examples of this process also being presented at the annual conference.

It is perhaps time that we recognise how much quality CPD is taking place rather than listen too much to those that choose to discourage it, often hiding behind the excuse that their employers have not provided them with the time to ‘do CPD’, as if CPD were somehow divorced from practice.

What is critical is that the best practice is captured, valued, acknowledged and shared. Electronic portfolios provide a great way for doing this.