I obtained Fellowship this year and am currently working two days per week in the public system in a community CYMHS team and two days privately, with a clinical interest in autism spectrum disorder. 

At the beginning of the year, I perused the CPD Program Guide to better understand the CPD requirements and activities I needed to complete. I particularly found the “Summary Table of Activities” in each section helpful as it highlighted activities which were already part of my clinical practice irrespective of CPD requirements.

I utilised Template 2 for my Professional Development Plan. I liked how it had a calendar at the bottom of the plan and my aim was to complete roughly 5 hours of CPD per month.

Peer review groups (PRGs) are a great opportunity to discuss difficult cases and receive advice from peers in a non-judgemental forum. Furthermore, I have been very fortunate to receive individual supervision in addition to my PRGs, so it was easy to complete section 2 “Formal Peer Review Activities” of the CPD component.

Section 4 “Self-guided learning” can be fulfilled by attending journal clubs, supervising registrars and completing certain mandatory training components to name a few.

Most of us will comfortably complete more than 50 hours of CPD each year. The difficulty lies in keeping track of what we have done, and a record of the evidence required for CPD. The trick for me was preparation: spending a few hours at the beginning of the year on planning and writing my PDP helped me to achieve my CPD requirements more smoothly.

There are a lot of activities which count towards CPD, including the non-medical expert CANMEDS domains (research, advocacy, leadership). I plan to do different CPD activities each year to continue stretching my abilities and to ultimately improve the outcome for my patients.