Maintaining Advanced Practitioner Status

RE: Maintaining Advanced Practitioner Status

David Mills — Sun, 07 Aug 2016 15:25:24 GMT

I've no idea why people have Advanced Practitioner status unless it's going to be used as a marketing tool.

RE: Maintaining Advanced Practitioner Status

Judith Archbold — Sun, 07 Aug 2016 09:32:17 GMT

Ah, Dinu. Oh to be young again and have no house / elderly parent that I'm now stuck with for the foreseeable future.

For me, finding another job would mean moving house and sadly that's not feasible.

RE: Maintaining Advanced Practitioner Status

Dinu Catilina — Sat, 06 Aug 2016 23:20:56 GMT

[quote user="Judith Archbold"]

The perils of making bad career decisions..... But it is what it is.

I do keep reminding my nurses and clients that they're lucky to have me :)

[/quote]

You know you can easily find another job? Basically anytime ...

RE: Maintaining Advanced Practitioner Status

Eilidh Corr — Sat, 06 Aug 2016 19:01:26 GMT

[quote user="Judith Archbold"]But it is what it is.[/quote]

You're the genuinely heroic and often completely overlooked face of the profession these days. All I can offer is a figurative pat on the back and a nod of solidarity.

RE: Maintaining Advanced Practitioner Status

Judith Archbold — Sat, 06 Aug 2016 12:57:54 GMT

"But you also want to display a badge that means something - a certain level of achievement or keeping up to date etc."

you're right Rob....but sadly I work mainly on my own in a branch surgery where I still get asked about once a month " are you a vet".... Or " where's the man vet?".... usually after I've performed some kind of heroic surgery on their pet.... :)

I just did my certificates for my own personal sense if achievement.

the post grad qualifications haven't allowed me to earn anymore money.... I haven't even got a name badge!

The perils of making bad career decisions..... But it is what it is.

I do keep reminding my nurses and clients that they're lucky to have me :)

RE: Maintaining Advanced Practitioner Status

Michael Woodhouse — Sat, 06 Aug 2016 12:45:58 GMT

[quote user="Judith Archbold"]I'm not sure how many hours can be counted as CPD[/quote]

Every single one of them (that you CBA to document).

There is no requirement to ever go anywhere or spend any money.

RE: Maintaining Advanced Practitioner Status

Rob Loxley — Sat, 06 Aug 2016 12:39:02 GMT

[quote user="Judith Archbold"]It's all a big faff really .... Just want to get-on with the job.[/quote]

But you also want to display a badge that means something - a certain level of achievement or keeping up to date etc.

RE: Maintaining Advanced Practitioner Status

Judith Archbold — Sat, 06 Aug 2016 12:20:54 GMT

Thanks for your thoughts. its given me some ideas of things I can document. Obviously I still have to look-up techniques / anatomy from time to time but I'm not sure how many hours can be counted as CPD but I'll write them down anyway.

It's all a big faff really .... Just want to get-on with the job.

RE: Maintaining Advanced Practitioner Status

Michael Woodhouse — Fri, 05 Aug 2016 23:09:20 GMT

I'm also not convinced that it is a particularly onerous task. RCVS will take a sensible view over the CPD on peripheral issues so long as there is a core of CPD in the required area.

So much counts as CPD that I don't believe anyone doesn't spend an hour a week or 10 minutes per day looking something up, or even talking about a case to colleagues. Teaching and mentoring can count (vet students, less experienced vets). You can log your time on here - even this very discussion is relevant and you will have spent time creating the thread, reading and digesting the replies.

If you are an employee and the practice is advertising you as an advanced practitioner in surgery - then I do feel they should pay the fees (unless you are on an excellent salary reflecting your experience). Maybe time to try and negotiate the CPD allowance a bit too - seems to have been £1000 forever (it's what our contracts say...) - if I was employing someone with higher qualifications I'd consider spending more on CPD to help them maintain that skill.

I'm currently toying with adding a 2nd designation...

RE: Maintaining Advanced Practitioner Status

Beats — Fri, 05 Aug 2016 22:26:48 GMT

[quote user="Judith Archbold"]I have no problem in keeping up to date with reading journals, learning about new drugs / suture materials etc.[/quote]

These things ARE CPD!

The RCVS are quite enlightened on what constitutes continued professional development - it doesn't equate CPD= £££course.

If you are doing surgery, then you will be doing continued professional devleopment without thinking about it, the requirement is jsut to document it. Unless you can truly say that you are no better/more-experienced/wiser a surgeon than you were a year ago you have no problem as you are learning, all you need to do now is learn to document it so others can see.

You will learn something from a surgical procedure at least once a week - the requirement is simply that you put on paper what you alraedy do in your head:

"That TECA-LBO was a nightmare and took me 3 hours, next time a GSD with unilateral otitis like that turns up I'm going to check it doesn't have a cholesteatoma before proceeding." - time taken to learn this little gem = 4 hours!

or: "If I'd checked the clotting on that episiotomy before removing that large leiomyoma from horizonal vaginal vault then I might not have sat for the last 6 hours with a sedated bitch applying pressure and phoning blood donors... now I've had all that time with my mind focused to think about it, here's 3 things I could have done differently or had to hand for unexpected surgical hemorrhage" 3 hours of investigating electrosurgery units later, an hour of reading the manual and 3 hours of trying it out in mammary strips and you'll decide that was a better £700 spent on your professional develeopment that will benefit your patients than attending a course on a procedure you are either familiar with or unlikely to do or not equipped to perform... an hour of writing an account of what you did and why it was a better use of your funds than an 8hr session playing with interlocking nails.

or: "Ovariectomy: 4 knots was not quicker for me and scar size jsut the same, I'll stick to what I know best"

Time spent preparing for a procedure, be that watching a video, re-reading a technique, making a checklist of what you need (that can be re-used next time) or planning a procedure, or even doing a procedure is all CPD... as long as you document what you learned/changed/thought/reflected.

Effectively anything that progresses YOUR skills or thought-processes as a surgeon is valid as long as you document it.

Nothing wrong with READING either - doesn't ahve to be a specific technique or journal either - copies of Atul Gawande's books are probably a couple of quid these days on amazon and semi-interesting reading. Again you just need to document how long you spent reading and anything you took away from that time, even if your only conclusion is "well that's fine for a human surgeon in a hospital organisation..."

Nobody has said anything about a requirement to spend money or attend expensive away-days to my knowledge. Your only requirement is to spend TIME (and document how you spent it).