non-article: CDP in Australia

The National Professional Development Committee (NPDC) was charged by the House of Delegates (HOD) in April 1997 with the task of developing a framework and implementing a system of Mandatory Continuing Professional Development (MCPD) for the Australian Physiotherapy Association. Members will be required to plan for and record the activities they undertake and assess their achievement of identified competencies in a Professional Development Portfolio. This record will be randomly reviewed during the first cycle by members of the state Professional Development Committees (PDCs) or the Academic Standards Committees. This competency based model is derived from the work of Boyatzis, Cowen and Kolb (1996) and the Australian Physiotherapy Competency Standards (1994). The system has been structured to allow participant choice and flexibility. This has been achieved by formulating the program around modules which acknowledge the different ways members access professional development and the role of the NSGs in providing for this. The modules are: 1) MODULE 1 ---- Self Directed Learning Courses, teaching, committee activities, reflection, reading, presentations, research, QA activities, PR activities, internet chat rooms, independent 2) MODULE 2 ---- Group Learning Existing modules eg. MPAA, NSPG, modules developed by NSGs and the College and those developed by workplaces. 3) MODULE 3 ---- Institution Based Any course offered by an institution with formal assessment procedures Members can choose to access one particular module to meet their needs or choose activities from all three. The first cycle will commence in January 1999. The system will be formally reviewed at the end of the second year (December 2000) to enable recommended changes to be implemented before the commencement of the second cycle in January 2002.