Choosing your CPD Journey
Given the breadth of family medicine, the complexity of the patients we see and the systems we work within it can be challenging to decide where to invest our time when it comes to professional development.
Adopting a reflective approach to the direction you take can help support a rewarding journey towards improved patient care and joy in work:
- Be deliberate about how you identify your learning needs
- Pursue offerings that directly address them
- Leverage tools and resources to put your knowledge into practice
- Consider how you will measure the impact of any changes
- Adopt a growth mindset as you reflect on your successes and challenges
What do I need to learn?
Explore strategies for identifying your learning needs
- Look at data: If you have access to practice-level data reviewing it can provide an excellent opportunity to identify both areas where patient care is exemplary and others where there is room for improvement.
- Reflect: Similar to when we ask our patients to complete a sleep diary or a dietary journal consider observing your own practice over a period of a few weeks. Make a note of which patients or issues you found most challenging to manage and consider why that might have been the case? What about labs or test results you were less sure on how to handle or a diagnosis that came back as a surprise? Where did you find yourself not sure on best next steps?
What are my next steps?
Take a moment to consider how to best address your learning needs
Questions to ask:
- How and where do I learn best? Online/in-person/self-study/longitudinal/intensive/podcast/webinar
- What type of learning do I need? Knowledge, skills, tools for implementation
- How do I define and measure my success in addressing my identified learning needs?
- What other circumstances in my life may impact my current CPD choices? For example, time pressures, family commitments, other needs like connecting with colleagues or a day away from practice.
Create a training plan:
In the same way as a runner prepares for a marathon, consider what variety of “training sessions” you will need to address your learning needs or practice gap (your “race goal”). Perhaps, it is learning about an area of medicine that is new or significantly changed and like a long run session it requires steady effort and CPD programming that supports your learning over time, or maybe it is tempo work in the form of short updates on a topic you already know well. In both situations you may complement your learning with strength work - targeted efforts to take your knowledge and incorporate it into your practice and rest days - to restore the energy for the work and learning you do. Outline in your plan how you will know if you have achieved your goal and reflect on your successes, challenges and take homes along the way.
Use resources:
The CFPC Professional Learning Plan provides a framework and supports for establishing learning goals and steps to achieve them through either a self-guided or peer-supported pathway.
CPD’s friendly neighbor: QI
How a QI lens can energize and support your CPD journey
Acquiring knowledge and skills is often the “easy” part of continuing professional development. It is implementing that learning into practice and identifying whether your efforts have had an impact that can be challenging. Using a QI lens can help with this process. Check out our QI modules for primary care clinicians here. Coming soon: Quick tips for incorporating QI into your CPD learning.