CPD and me

Optometrists and dispensing opticians have fewer than seven weeks remaining to ensure that they have met and declared their GOC CPD points, alongside the new Personal Development Plan (PDP) and Reflective exercise requirements, to ensure they can continue to practise on 1 January 2025.

OT has spoken to three optometrists on the ‘nice’ list, who have met their CPD requirements already, about what education and professional development has meant to them during the first CPD cycle.

Senior independent prescribing optometrist and director of Hakim Group practice, Cameron Optometry, Ian Cameron, has completed an estimated six CPD cycles since he qualified – a year prior to CET becoming a mandatory requirement for GOC registrants. As a specialist IP optometrist, he is required to collect 54 CPD points (18 of which must be obtained from the specialty CPD domain).

By the end of October, Cameron had submitted 55 CPD points on his MyGOC, My CPD, but told OT: “I honestly couldn’t estimate how much I’ve done and not declared.”

A rule introduced as part of the first CPD cycle, which has run from 1 January 2022 and concludes on 31 December 2024, sees registrants upload and declare their CPD themselves for the first time. Previously providers would have done this task. Self-directed CPD was also introduced, enabling practitioners to complete non-provider-led education relevant to their professional practice or professional development. Both elements mean that Cameron has completed a vast amount more education than he has declared within his 54 points requirement.

When explaining what CPD means to him, Cameron shared that he takes a “fairly broad view,” describing it as “anything that enhances my professional practice.”

For Cameron, this includes traditional requirements alongside insights from areas that may feel somewhat removed from optometry. He explained: “For instance, I spend time with other healthcare professionals to understand their industries, looking for practices I can apply to optometry and my practice.

“I also keep up with financial updates to help me run the business more efficiently, and I learn about HR to ensure my team is supported. Of course, I engage in the standard optometry-related activities, and I also visit other practices to observe how they handle day-to-day operations.”

While under CPD cycle rules, what Cameron describes could be declared as self-directed CPD, he admitted: “I already meet the 'usual' CPD requirements, so I don’t need to log these additional experiences. Still, they significantly enhance my professional practice, so I consider them part of my CPD.”

Specsavers optometrist and clinical performance consultant for the Greater London division, Deepali Modha, has completed an estimated five education cycles during her career.

For the current CPD cycle, Modha has declared 36 points “and rising, with lots of CPD, facilitation and self-directed opportunities booked in before the end of the cycle,” she told OT.

For Modha, CPD is all about personal and professional growth, “so I can continue to give the best care to my patients whilst continuing to invest in my own self development and future ambitions.”

“CPD helps me think outside the box and learn about new innovations or treatments. As a clinician in a support role, it helps me develop my own leadership skills so that I can help others,” she added.

Amit Sharma is a senior IP optometrist at Davis Optometrists and DW Roberts Opticians, a group of Hakim Group independent practices. To date in the current cycle, Sharma has collected 60 CPD points – comprising 46 general and 14 specialty – exceeding his 54-point total, with four more specialty required to declare.

Sharma told OT: “I do have a dozen or so more points that I need to declare.”

He explained: “Although I am not required to, I feel it is important that I do declare these points as a sign of my commitment to CPD. This is a job for December when I’ll tying up all my loose ends for the year.”

For all three optometrists, the concept of CPD is important and helps them expand and grow as practitioners.

For Sharma, CPD is essential to maintaining standards of practice. “In addition to the minimum expectations, CPD allows me to revisit previous learnings, and explore ways I can increase my scope of practice by advancements within our profession which, invariably, will allow me to enhance the care I can provide my patients,” he said.

Passionate about further learning, Cameron believes the majority of the profession would continue learning, CPD requirements or not.

“I believe most of us in the profession would continue learning and developing even without mandatory CPD points. Most optometrists I know are naturally inclined to stay sharp and keep learning. That said, having a clear target is helpful, and with the requirement for variety, it pushes us to explore a broad range of topics rather than just our favourite areas,” he said.

Reflecting the first CPD cycle as it draws to a close, Cameron said: “It’s been encouraging to see the expansion of CPD to include self-directed content, broadening our perspective on professional development for this cycle.”

The PDP

Cameron shared that he has some takeaways from the first CPD cycle. In particular, he now better understands the purpose of some of the new mandatory requirements, such as the PDP.

He logged his PDP in January 2022 and admitted that he “never opened it again.”

“I see now that was a mistake,” he told OT. “When I looked at it at the end of this cycle, it was completely useless – I’d forgotten what I’d written and hadn’t opened it once since January 2022. Looking back, I can see it would have been helpful to: a) make the document more meaningful from the start, and b) refer to it and adjust it as I progressed through the cycle.”

Similarly, Modha completed her PDP in the summer of 2022. She recalled: “I initially found it challenging to think about how I wanted to develop and plan my learnings for the whole CPD cycle.”

However, since uploading it, Modha explained that she has used her PDP as a useful ‘working document,’ which she has edited and added to throughout the CPD cycle.

Modha shared: “My learning objectives have changed over the past couple of years, and I’ve added these to my PDP to reflect my own development goals, both clinically and professionally.”

Similarly, Sharma found his PDP, which he completed at the start of the CPD cycle in 2022, to be a road map for the last three years, having set himself SMART – specific, measurable, achievable, realistic targets – objectives.

The Reflective exercise

Cameron, who has completed his Reflective exercise, provided his forthright reflections on the Reflective exercise, highlighting, “it was actually more helpful than I expected.”

“It reminded me of my original goals in my PDP (and that I actually had a PDP). It allowed me to see how things have evolved since I first wrote it. Reflecting on my CPD has highlighted some gaps and shown me areas for improvement in the next cycle. Rather than viewing CPD as a chore, if we have to do it, we might as well make it worthwhile.”

He emphasised: “It didn’t take a huge amount of time, but it was definitely worth doing, and I feel better prepared to start afresh in January 2025.”

Sharma has also completed his Reflective exercise, opting to complete it with Hakim Group’s head of professional advancement and governance, Claire Slade, and using it as an opportunity to identify any challenges in the process his fellow clinical peers may encounter.

On completing the exercise, Sharma told OT: “I found it useful for myself in terms of seeing if I had achieved my objectives. I also found the exercise insightful by seeing what a fellow peer’s objectives were for their CPD cycle.”

While Modha has not completed her Reflective exercise yet, she has identified and paired up with a colleague who is an optometrist and in the same team and has set time aside in November.

“We will be doing it either in person or over teams and discussing our PDPs and our learning over the CPD cycle. We have protected time in our diaries to ensure we have sufficient time to discuss and reflect.”

A New Year’s CPD resolution

As the end of the current CPD cycle nears, the start of the 2025–2027 cycle appears upon the horizon, so we asked Cameron, Modha and Sharma what their CPD New Year’s resolution would be come 1 January.

Cameron’s New Year’s CPD resolution is to: “Write a decent PDP and actually refer to it regularly in this cycle.”

Modha’s immediate focus is also on the PDP. “My CPD resolution is to get my new PDP done in the first quarter of 2025 and start getting my points early on,” she said.

And while Sharma will be focusing on his personal development generally, he will also be focused on supporting the development of his team to ensure they can continuously develop their scope of practice and the care they provide to patients.

“CPD is so important to me,” he concluded.