Importance of Continuing Professional Development (CPD)
28/10/2024
Importance of Continuing Professional Development
Continuing professional development (CPD) is a critical part of any healthcare professional’s career. In order to be an effective clinician utilising evidence-based practice, we must constantly be learning and growing as professionals. CPD can consist of a variety of different tactics for learning and growth. These may include online or in-person live or recorded courses, receiving or teaching mentoring sessions, reading the most recent research through journal articles or up-to-date textbooks, and leading or participating in in-service presentations at your workplace. These opportunities will likely include honing hands-on physiotherapy evaluation and treatment techniques, including exercise prescription and manual therapy.
The subject area can be wide as long as it pertains to the scope of practice as a physiotherapist. So, it could include learning about a completely new area of practice or refreshing and honing your knowledge in your current area of practice. Working as a physiotherapist allows us to practice in such a large range of areas including musculoskeletal, paediatrics, and neurology, to name just a few. However, in a private practice especially, providing the best care our patients deserve may require knowledge in each of these areas. Therefore, CPD can help to be prepared to help the next patient that walks through the door.
CORU, which is the governing body for many healthcare professions in Ireland, requires that all physiotherapists complete at least 30 credits of CPD every year. This ensures that healthcare providers are up-to-date to provide safe and effective healthcare to those whom they serve.
A couple of the courses I’ve completed recently:
Dance Injuries of the Foot and Ankle
Main learnings from this course:
- Around 50% of dance injuries occur in the foot and ankle
- Some factors contributing to injury include poor muscular control, decreased ankle strength, and lack of turnout
- Injury prevention training should include strengthening of the calf muscles, balance exercises, and working the foot intrinsic muscles, also called the “foot core”
Adolescent Patellofemoral Pain
- Pain around the kneecap (patellofemoral pain) can be due to multiple factors, including neuromuscular control, alignment, and patellar tracking
- Osgood Schlatter disease, one of the most common causes of knee pain in adolescents, is an overuse injury that can be due to repetitive jumping and sprinting especially around the time of a growth spurt
- Physiotherapy is beneficial to assist with pain reduction, load management, strengthening, and neuromuscular control to allow young people to return to their sports and activities
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