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Most of you will now be aware of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) credit-based system for demonstrating continuing professional development (CPD); however, you are probably wondering how it works in practice, and how you can gain your credits? To help you answer these questions, Professor Nigel Sparrow, Chair of the Professional Development Board at the RCGP, discusses the new scheme in an article this month (click here). He summarises its development, and highlights that CPD credits should be obtained from a range of different activities, including unstructured and targeted reading, attendance at meetings, online learning, and demonstrating impact.

To further support you with your CPD, we have developed a number of initiatives that will be available from January 2010 in Guidelines in Practice and online at eGuidelines.co.uk. In each issue of the journal after the main clinical features, CPD action points will be listed under the heading ‘CPD: demonstrating learning and impact’. The statements will:

• prompt you to reflect on the article
• help you to apply your learning to your practice and demonstrate impact
• explain how to calculate the number of associated CPD credits.

The CPD action points will be written by Dr Honor Merriman (GP, CPD Tutor, and member of the Guidelines in Practice editorial board) and reviewed by Professor Sparrow. The statements will also appear on eGuidelines.co.uk where you will be able to log your information online and save it in your CPD portfolio. For example, after reading a Guidelines in Practice article, you may wish to demonstrate your learning by recording some case studies involving your patients that show the implementation of some evidence-based guidance. To locate CPD-related content in 2010 in Guidelines in Practice and online at eGuidelines.co.uk, look out for the new logo (see above left).

Julia Morris, Editor
julia.morris@mgp.ltd.ukG