Professional development is an important aspect of your career, regardless of the industry or field of practice. It involves continuously improving and expanding one's skills, knowledge, and expertise through ongoing learning and development opportunities.
Professional development ensures you stay updated with the latest practices and trends in your field, helps you advance in your career, and keeps you motivated and engaged in your work. In some sectors, professional development is a job requirement.
And work-related training is growing. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2021 Census, about 23% of Australians completed work-related training. Online learning was the most common way to engage in such training, nearly doubling to 55% from 19% in 2016-17.
So, what does this all mean for care and support professionals? Let’s explore.
CPD points, or Continuous Professional Development points, are crucial to maintaining your skills, knowledge, and competencies in your professional career.
The purpose of CPD is to help professionals keep their knowledge and skills up-to-date and relevant to their fields. These requirements vary between professions, but professionals can generally earn between 10 and 40 CPD points annually.
CPD activities can take many forms, including:
Generally, you gain a CPD point for each hour of training you complete. In other words, spending 1 hour completing online training would earn 1 CPD point. Although this varies by sector—most require you to do a minimum number of hours.
In Australia, professional bodies— such as the Australian Institute of Architects, the Institute of Engineers Australia, the Institute of Chartered Accountants, and the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA)—have established minimum requirements for the number of CPD points that must be earned by their members each year.
The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) requires nurses and midwives to earn at least 20 CPD hours per year, with at least 10 hours being structured CPD.
You must maintain records of your CPD activities and submit them to your relevant professional body when renewing your professional registration.
The records should include:
Professional bodies may conduct random audits of members' CPD records to ensure compliance with the CPD requirements. Non-compliance with the CPD requirements may result in your registration being suspended or cancelled.
Care and support professionals stand to benefit from acquiring CPD points because of regulatory requirements. The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) Practice Standards and the Aged Care Standards require support professionals to be appropriately trained to skilfully and confidently perform their roles.
Emerging trends and best practice models are constantly evolving to meet the changing needs of people with disability and older people. Through ongoing professional training, you can remain up-to-date with these developments and maintain your currency of skills and knowledge.
You also ensure you meet the NDIS Practice and Aged Care Standards, as it is also required to undergo continuous training to refresh your knowledge and skills.
Not only does CPD keep your skills current, but it also allows you to gain new knowledge and skills. This can be particularly valuable for professionals looking to broaden their expertise or pursue new career opportunities, such as leadership and management, communication, and cultural competency.
Participating in CPD activities demonstrates your commitment to your role and desire to remain at the forefront of the care and support sector.
As humans, we are naturally curious. We seek new experiences and new knowledge to sate that curiosity.
In fact, new and varied experiences have been shown to increase happiness. Studies from the Nature Neuroscience journal show a greater correlation between new ventures and brain activity linked to increased happiness. Enrichment and exposure to different situations are also key to keeping things interesting.
Sometimes, in our professional life, it’s all too easy to get stuck in a rut. Ongoing development keeps you motivated and engaged in your work. By pursuing opportunities to learn and grow, you can challenge yourself and expand your horizons, which can help prevent boredom and burnout.
Our Complex Care Essentials suite is a comprehensive resource designed for healthcare professionals and service providers to improve their knowledge and skills in caring for patients with complex needs. The Complex Care Essentials offer a great range of disability awareness training, with standard and refresher courses available.The courses are delivered online, which makes them easy to access and allow you to complete them at your own pace.
etrainu partnered with Essential Skills Training and Recruitment, a registered training organisation (RTO), to deliver this suite of courses. Essential Skills specialises in providing accredited and non-accredited training to the community services sector, from a Certificate III to an Advanced Diploma.
The library is mapped to 23 Continuing Professional Development (CPD) points via the Nursing and Midwifery CPD requirements, efficiently and effectively helping you meet your ongoing professional development requirements.
To learn more about our Complex Care Essentials, click here.
CPD is an essential component of professional development for many professionals in Australia. It helps you to stay informed about the latest industry developments, regulations, and best practices.
Online courses are a great option to gain your CPD points and demonstrate your commitment to yourself and those you support.
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