CPD (continuing professional development)

CPD is any activity from which you learn and develop as a professional: courses and conferences, but also reflective practice, audit, teaching, reading and learning from feedback or incidents. Regulators care less about attendance and more about how learning improves your practice and patient care. In some countries it is called continuing medical education (CME) or continuing education (CE).

The HCPC, for example, says CPD is any activity from which you learn and develop, not just course attendance, and that it looks for evidence of a range of activities and their benefit to service users.

• NMC (UK nurses and midwives): 35 hours every three years, of which at least 20 must be participatory learning with other professionals, recorded with the method, topic, dates, hours, the relevant part of the Code and evidence. Checked at revalidation.
• GMC (UK doctors): no set number of hours or credits and no requirement to join a college scheme. Doctors reflect on their CPD and discuss it at annual appraisal.
• HCPC (UK allied health): no hours or points. Registrants keep a continuous record of varied activities, and at each two-yearly renewal the HCPC audits a random 2.5% of each profession.
• Medical Council of Ireland: doctors enrol in a professional competence scheme. For 2026 to 2027 they need at least 50 CPD credits a year and one clinical or practice audit. The year runs from 1 May to 30 April.
• Netherlands: BIG re-registration every five years rests on work experience or a training route.
• USA: continuing education hours are set by each state board, so check the board for every state licence you hold.

The Irish Medical Council breaks its 50 credits down into at least 5 for planning CPD, 10 for practice review, 15 for work-based learning and 20 for accredited continuing education, and doctors must cover all eight domains of good professional practice at least once every three years.

1. Identify learning needs from your role, appraisal and feedback.
2. Choose a mix of activities, including some with other professionals.
3. Record each activity as you go, with dates, hours and evidence.
4. Write a short reflection on what changed in your practice.
5. Keep records for the full cycle, since audits and revalidation look back across it.

For the NMC, CPD must fall within the three-year period since you joined the register, so learning done before then does not count towards your first revalidation. The GMC likewise expects supporting information from your UK practice. Keep your old certificates as evidence of your scope of practice, but plan new CPD in your first year. Learning about the new health system, its law and its guidance is valuable CPD in its own right.

• Counting only courses and missing reflection.
• Not separating participatory hours for the NMC.
• Losing evidence because records were kept only with a former employer.