Continuing professional development (CPD)

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Authors

van den Hoogen A, Johnston L, Roehr CC, Panas M, Gözen D, Mannix T, Kühn T, Petty J, Schlembach D, Simeone N, Stoniene D, Tency I, Warren I

© EFCNI

Target group

Healthcare professionals working in neonatal care


User group

Parents and families, healthcare professionals, neonatal units, hospitals, professional societies, regulators of the profession


Statement of standard

All healthcare professionals have access to and undertake continuing professional development to deliver safe and effective healthcare.


Rationale

The commitment to professional development is essential to be able to deliver effective and safe healthcare for infants and their families. (1) Professional development requires life-long learning. (2) Professional development is required so that professionals keep up with the scientific and technological changes that are occurring in healthcare settings. (3)

The availability of a variety of faculty development programmes can prepare practicing healthcare professionals for different roles within their institution; such as practitioner, educator and scholar/researcher. (4) The content of continuing professional development (CPD) programmes needs to be adapted for use to fit the national context, and to reflect the specific needs, health priorities, legislative and regulatory standards that govern safe healthcare across different countries. (5)


Benefits


Components of the standard

Component

Grading of evidence

Indicator of meeting the standard

For parents and family

  1. Parents contribute their perspective to the CPD opportunities available to healthcare professionals. (6)

B (Low quality)

Parent feedback

For healthcare professionals

  1. CPD is undertaken by all healthcare professionals.

B (High quality)

Training documentation

  1. Each healthcare professional is able to set professional development goals. (3)

B (Low quality)

Training documentation

For neonatal unit and hospital

  1. The access to CPD is ensured.

B (High quality)

Training documentation

  1. CPD is valued and included in everyday work practices.

B (Moderate quality)

Training documentation

  1. Opportunities for workplace learning are available.

B (Moderate quality)

Audit report1, training documentation

For professional societies

  1. Structured CPD activities for members are available.

B (Moderate quality)

Training documentation

For regulators of the profession

  1. Evidence of CPD is required for re-licensing.

B (High quality)

Training documentation

For health service

N/A

1The indicator “audit report” can also be defined as a benchmarking report.


Where to go

Further development

Grading of evidence

For parents and family

  • Parents contribute to continuing professional development (CPD) activities. (7)

B (Low quality)

For healthcare professionals

N/A

For neonatal unit

N/A

For hospital

  • Establish a curriculum that prepares frontline caregivers to partner with families to identify problems on the units, to develop testable strategies for improvement, and to develop their leadership skills to lead further system change. (6)

B (Low quality)

For professional societies

  • Develop a broad CPD programme to enhance practice.

B (Moderate quality)

For regulators of the profession

N/A

For health service

N/A


Getting started

Initial steps

For parents and family

N/A

For healthcare professionals

  • Seek out availability of CPD opportunities.

For neonatal unit

N/A

For hospital

  • Support healthcare professionals to undertake CPD.
  • Ensure support for and advice about CPD by hospital managers.
  • Ensure commitment of key decision makers to value of CPD.
  • Provide the internal infrastructure for CPD (e.g. library access, classroom time, online module availability).

For professional societies

N/A

For regulators of the profession

  • Develop CPD as a component for licensing healthcare professionals.

For health service

N/A


  1. Gould D, Drey N, Berridge E-J. Nurses’ experiences of continuing professional development. Nurse Educ Today. 2007 Aug;27(6):602–9.
  2. Filipe HP, Silva ED, Stulting AA, Golnik KC. Continuing Professional Development: Best Practices. Middle East Afr J Ophthalmol. 2014;21(2):134–41.
  3. Cooper E. Creating a culture of professional development: a milestone pathway tool for registered nurses. J Contin Educ Nurs. 2009 Nov;40(11):501–8.
  4. French HM, Hales RL. Neonatology faculty development using simulation. Semin Perinatol. 2016 Nov 1;40(7):455–65.
  5. Kliger J, Lacey SR, Olney A, Cox KS, O’Neil E. Nurse-driven programs to improve patient outcomes: transforming care at the bedside, integrated nurse leadership program, and the clinical scene investigator academy. J Nurs Adm. 2010 Mar;40(3):109–14.
  6. Parent K, Jones K, Phillips L, Stojan JN, House JB. Teaching Patient- and Family-Centered Care: Integrating Shared Humanity into Medical Education Curricula. AMA J Ethics. 2016 Jan 1;18(1):24–32.
  7. Astin F, Carroll DL, Ruppar T, Uchmanowicz I, Hinterbuchner L, Kletsiou E, et al. A core curriculum for the continuing professional development of nurses: Developed by the Education Committee on behalf of the Council on Cardiovascular Nursing and Allied Professions of the ESC. Eur J Cardiovasc Nurs J Work Group Cardiovasc Nurs Eur Soc Cardiol. 2015 Jun;14(3):190–7.

November 2018 / 1st edition / next revision: 2023


Recommended citation

EFCNI, van den Hoogen A, Johnston L et al., European Standards of Care for Newborn Health: Continuing professional development (CPD). 2018.