New requirements for continued professional development (CPD), have come into effect as of 1 December 2020.
These new minimum requirements apply to all registered optometrists who hold general registration with AHPRA – you cannot register as a health practitioner and undertake patient consultations if you have not met them within each registration period.
mieducation.com – mivision’s CPD portal for optometrists – continues to provide the highest quality accredited online learning, 24/7, free of charge
The only exception is if you have applied for, and are granted CPD exemption (due to exceptional circumstances) or are in the non-practising category.
Important to note is that registration periods now run for 12 months, from 1 December to 30 November.
In general, accredited CPD activities should:
• Improve patient outcomes,
• Be evidence-based,
• Improve your competence (performance or behaviour) and keep you up-to-date in your chosen scope-of-practice and practice setting, and
• Build on your existing knowledge.
mieducation.com – mivision’s CPD portal for optometrists – continues to provide the highest quality accredited online learning, 24/7, free of charge.
The new requirements are as follows:
• Instead of CPD points, registered optometrists must complete a minimum of 20 hours of CPD activities within each registration period; from 1 December to 30 November),
• Therapeutically endorsed optometrists must complete a minimum of 30 hours of CPD within each registration period and at least 10 of those hours must relate to a scheduled medicines endorsement,
• A minimum five hours of the CPD must be interactive,
• Total hours can include a maximum five hours of non-clinical/non-scientific content,
• You must develop and maintain a CPD portfolio, including a Learning Plan, identifying your professional learning goals and the CPD activities you have undertaken to address them. Your portfolio must include a reflection on each CPD activity, outlining what you have learned and how it relates to your professional learning goals,
• You must keep evidence of all CPD activities undertaken and completed for a period of five years, and
• You must complete cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training every three years.
The new requirements offer options to include a broader range of activities than before, however you do need to ensure activities you participate in are deemed to be appropriate CPD.
Interactive activities, such as evidence-based clinical discussions with colleagues or stakeholders and clinical audits undertaken to benchmark your patient outcomes, for instance, will also be considered appropriate.
To find out more, visit Optometry Board of Australia.
