Continuous Professional Development (CPD)
Background
Continuous Professional Development (CPD)” shall mean a range of learning activities through which health professionals maintain and develop throughout their career to ensure that they retain their capacity to practice safely, effectively, and legally within their scope of practice.
It refers to all activities health professionals undertake formally to maintain, update and develop their knowledge, skills and attitudes in response to the health service needs of the public. CPD also denotes to the period of education and training of health professionals commencing after completion of basic or postgraduate health professional training.
Purpose
It aims to maintain and develop competencies of individual health professionals essential for meeting the changing needs of patients and the health service system to respond to new challenges of emerging/re-emerging health problems and scientific development.
The ultimate purpose of CPD is to improve the health status of citizens through the delivery of quality health services by competent health professionals and helps to establish a CPD system in the country by outlining the process of accreditation of CPD accreditors, CPD providers, and link CPD with re-licensure of health professionals.
EPHAs Effort in the Implementation of CPD
As a prominent and vibrant professional association, EPHA has a major role in initiating and maintaining a standardized CPD system in the country. EPHA has developed a CPD strategy since 2014.
To this end, EPHA fulfilled CPD requirements and assessed it’s capacity to be a CPD accreditor and provider. In addition, EPHA recognized areas of collaboration in the CPD implementation and explored the opportunity to speed up the implementation of CPD at national level.
In the meantime, the ministry of health has developed a CPD guidelines and directives in November 2018 where EPHA was represented in the development of CPD documents.
Following the guidelines and directives, EPHA was requested by the FMoH to serve as Continuous Professional Development (CPD) accreditor through a letter መጠ1 15/44/140 dated Tahissase 24/29011 and received a certificate as an accreditor. “Accreditor” shall refer to government universities and health professionals associations that shall be accredited by the Ministry of Health.