CPD information

Articles

Reading an article on bpac.org.nz is endorsed by the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners (RNZCGP) as a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) activity. Every hour spent reading articles earns two CPD credits. General Practitioners can enter a record of activity to the Te Whanake CPD programme available from your dashboard.

We are also:

• Recognised by the College of Nurses Aotearoa (NZ) as providers of high-quality education; reading our online articles counts towards hours of professional development. This can be recorded via MyNC on the 'Continuing Competence' tab.
• Endorsed by the Pharmaceutical Society of New Zealand Inc as providers of CPD. For further information about PSNZ competence standards, click here

All healthcare providers are encouraged to reflect on what they have learnt from reading an article and may also find that it can count as a professional development activity with their own professional association; check with your accrediting body regarding CPD requirements.

Quizzes

Quizzes are endorsed by the The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners (RNZCGP) for allocation of CPD credits and equate to one hour of a CPD activity for General Practitioners (two CPD credits). This does not include the time spent reading the articles that the quiz relates to, which can be claimed separately – see above. Details are automatically collected and sent to the RNZCGP for allocation of credits after completing a quiz. The CPD online dashboard is updated periodically, so there will be a delay between completing a quiz and your CPD credits "showing up". An indicator at the top of the review page on a quiz will show whether the RNZCGP has been notified.

Quizzes are also approved for the Inpractice recertificate programme, and auto-record into your e-portfolio.

Quizzes may be completed by any “My bpac” user. If you are completing the quiz as a professional development activity for any other programme, you will have to submit evidence of your completed quiz to your appropriate authority manually. For example, this time approximation (one hour) could also be used for estimating nursing hours of professional development. After completing a quiz you have the option of emailing or printing yourself a certificate as proof of completion.

Audits

Clinical audits are an important tool to help improve clinical practice and identify where gaps exist between expected and actual performance. Once completed, they can provide ideas on how to change practice and improve patient outcomes. General practitioners are encouraged to discuss the suitability and relevance of their proposed audit with their practice or peer group prior to commencement to ensure the relevance of the audit. Outcomes of the audit should also be discussed with the practice or peer group; this may be recorded as a learning activity reflection if suitable.

Working audits. bpac^nz has also developed audits with a working option alongside the conventional PMS query-builder approach. These involve filling in the data sheet opportunistically when you have a consultation with an eligible patient until the required number of patients has been reached. This format may be better suited to locums or urgent care clinicians, or other healthcare professionals who prefer a different approach to identifying eligible patients. Look out for working audit options, identifiable by the cog icon.

General practitioners can claim credits towards the Patient Outcomes (Improving Patient Care and Health Outcomes) learning category of the RNZCGP Te Whanake CPD programme, on a two credit per learning hour basis. A minimum of 12 credits is required in the Patient Outcomes category over a triennium (three years).

Any data driven activity that assesses the outcomes and quality of general practice work can be used to gain credits in the Patient Outcomes learning category. Under the refreshed Te Whanake CPD programme, audits are not compulsory and the RNZCGP also no longer requires that clinical audits are approved prior to use. The College recommends the Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) format for developing and checking the relevance of a clinical audit.

Further information on the PDSA model is provided in individual audits published from July, 2023.

To claim credits, go to the RNZCGP website: www.rnzcgp.org.nz

If a clinical audit is completed as part of Te Whanake requirements, the RNZCGP continues to encourage that evidence of participation in the audit be attached to your recorded activity. Evidence can include:

1. A summary of the data collected
2. An Audit of Medical Practice (CQI) Activity summary sheet (Appendix 1 in our audits or available on the RNZCGP website).

bpac^nz audits are approved for the InPractice recertification programme and can be entered under the audit section of the CPD summary section on the InPractice website (www.inpractice.org.nz). A copy of the audit data and a summary can be uploaded to the website.

N.B. Audits can also be completed by other health professionals working in primary care (particularly prescribers), if relevant. Check with your accrediting authority as to documentation requirements.

Peer group discussions

Peer group discussion sheets are available on our website and aim to provide discussion points for use within your peer group or for self-reflection.