What counts as CPD for Occupational Therapists?

The types of CPD can include:

• Work-based learning - e.g. reflecting on experiences at work, considering feedback from service users, or being a member of a committee.
• Professional activity - e.g. being involved in a professional body or giving a presentation at a conference.
• Formal education - e.g. going on formal courses or carrying out research.
• Self-directed learning - e.g. reading articles or books.

But what does this look like in reality? There could be many things you are already doing day-to-day that can count towards this mixture of activities, so here are just a few suggestions to get your CPD juices flowing.

Reading tweets by any relevant associated bodies

For example, Royal College of Occupational Therapists, The Geeky OT, All About Occupation.

Reading new research papers posted by relevant research bodies

Current and back issues of the British Journal of Occupational Therapy can be accessed online along with research papers.

The OT Potential Club has compiled a list of the 100 Most Influential OT Research Articles.

Listening to podcasts

For example, OT and Chill, Royal College of Occupational Therapists, The LD OT Podcast, Occupied and The OT Roundtable.

Watching live and pre-recorded videos on YouTube or other video sharing platforms

There are a wide range of Occupational Therapy talks on the TEDx Youtube channel.

Exploring the many online training courses available through health boards, trusts, universities and other learning providers

The RCOT provides a list of its approved learning for CPD.

Udemy has a range of paid and free online courses for Occupational Therapists.

A number of universities provide short courses and modules as CPD. For example, The University of Derby and Brunel University London.

Reflecting on your experience after being involved in some industry campaigning

For example, have you engaged with or generated ideas for the #OTsForEquity campaign?

Being mentored or mentoring others

The Elizabeth Casson trust runs a mentoring programme and can direct practitioners to a range of different OT and leadership mentors.

Improving your day-to-day skills

This could include things like enhancing your IT and digital skills.

Reflecting on an article published in the British Journal of Occupational Psychology

Current and back issues can be found online.

Where will your CPD journey take you next?

If any of these have jogged your memory, or inspired you to start consciously tracking your development activities, then make sure you diarise some time to log and reflect on them.

Whether that’s in a fancy notebook, a spreadsheet, or a CPD tracking app like Julia, by capturing what you are doing regularly, your CPD history will build up in no time!

Please let us know on Twitter if you have any additional suggestions for activities and resources and we’ll update our list so everyone can benefit.

_{Please note that Julia is not affiliated with any external content nor is it endorsing any particular resources as successful CPD practice.}