As a pharmacist your entire working life is dedicated to Continuing Professional Development (CPD). You are learning and developing every minute of your day. CPD helps you to maintain your professional competence.

The CPD framework is based on a cyclical process of reflection, planning, action and evaluation which will help you with your evolving scope of practice.

Whether you start the cycle at any of the four stages, the key element is the evaluation of what you have learnt and the impact on your day to day work as a pharmacist, whatever your scope of practice.

Why do I need to do it?

• As a pharmacist, you must keep your professional skills, knowledge and competency up to date to protect your patients and the public

• It is a requirement of the Regulator’s CPD Standards for registration to practice

• CPD helps to reflect on your current scope of practice and future practice development

• Recording CPD can help you achieve your own career objectives and provide you with evidence of your development

• The GPhC will be calling you to submit your CPD record for review on a five-yearly cycle

• CPD may provide part of the supporting evidence that you submit to the GPhC  when revalidation is introduced

What do I need to do?

The standards require you to keep a record of your CPD, make a minimum of 9 entries per year in your CPD record, reflect and record on how the CPD task has helped you to develop or improve the quality of your practice and submit your records to the regulator when requested to do so. You can find more detail by reading the full standards and good practice guidance.