THE SCOPE OF CPD

CPD is the educative means of updating, developing and enhancing how practitioners apply the knowledge, skills and attitudes required to maintain and update their skills throughout their working lives. Continuing Professional Development (CPD) rather than Continuing Medical Education (CME) is the preferred term, as practitioners often perform many other roles that indirectly affect the quality of healthcare delivery, such as teaching, research and management.

The contents should be activities that will serve to develop or increase the knowledge, skills and professional performance of practitioners in the performance of their services for patients, the public or the

profession. These are some of the areas identified but this list is by no means exhaustive and will be amended from time to time as the need is either identified or arises:

• Law and ethics of the profession
• Good record keeping
• Health administration and management in general including issues of finance and economics
• Updating clinical skills
• IT including computer assisted clinical programs
• Basic research skills
• Healthcare financing

WHO GIVES APPROVAL FOR CPD EVENTS?
All events require prior approval and accreditation rating by the MDC. Retrospective accreditation will NOT be given for any event.

DEFINITION OF PROVIDERS
Any institutions or individual(s) who have the capacity to organise any programmes for CPD but who would require prior certification from Council. Such accreditation will be valid for a specified period.

For the pilot phase Institutions include the:

• Medical and Dental Council
• Colleges of Health Sciences
• Ghana Medical Association, the Ghana Dental Association and their affiliate Associations/groupings
• Post-graduate Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons

GUIDELINES FOR PROVIDERS

General Information

• A provider should be one of recognized institutions above.
• A provider must apply for accreditation as a provider institution on an annual basis and will pay fees for this privilege.
• Accreditation will also be required for each individual event.
• Must provide the MDC with a programme of activities on a 6-monthly basis in December of the previous year and June of the ensuing year.
• Any other areas suggested by providers will be examined on an individual basis by the MDC.
• Will be required to show proven qualification and expertise of Faculty (Lecturers/Speakers).
• Must show evidence of having verifiable access to a suitable facility for the purpose.
• Regional spread of programmes put out by institutions is encouraged.
• Must inform all practitioners attending the programme of the requirement for attendance of at least 80% of the programme before a certification of participation can be provided. Providers will be required to provide evidence of practitioners’ participation.

Accreditation Requirements

• The programme should be credible and well defined with a clearly set out content, logical sequence and relevance in any of areas already identified above. It will require verification and assessment for credit determination by MDC.
• The learning objectives must be specifically defined, and appropriate for the target audience. The teaching methods used must result in the achievement of the stated learning objectives.
• Evidence must be provided that the presenters and/or facilitators have the expertise to deliver the learning objectives using the methods chosen.

Participants (Practitioners)

• All practitioners participating in any event will be required to fill in an evaluation form (see Appendix 1).  The provider will be required to show the MDC the assessment forms for practitioners that will be used.
• The evaluation record for previous events organised by the same provider will be used for continuing assessment of a provider’s status. If previously unsatisfactory, evidence will be required to indicate that reasons for previous unsatisfactory ratings have been addressed.
• The provider agrees to provide, upon request, confirmation of practitioner participation any time up to two years after the event has taken place.
• All information used in programmes should be evidence-based and ethical issues should be spelt out for practitioners.

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Following accreditation of programme:  

• Providers will be required to indicate the number of approved credits each of their programmes will attract on formal advertisements for the programme. Approval for credits must be obtained before they are advertised.
• MDC reserves the right to appoint inspectors to any of the accredited programmes advertised.
• MDC will train the relevant staff of the Provider institutions on how documentation is done and certification is given.
• Providers must send back a report to the MDC Secretariat within 2 weeks of the completion of the event.
• In the pilot phase the MDC may require video evidence of the event to be provided.

Certification and Accreditation

• Certification of Providers (MDC/CPD FORM A)
• Accreditation of Programme (MDC/CPD FORM B)

Application Form
Please read these guidelines before sending in the application forms. Check that all the items below have been included.

• Complete all sections of the CPD application forms.
• State the educational objectives of the event, which should reflect measurable outcomes, and use action verbs such as “evaluate,” “identify,” “review” etc.  (MDC/CPD FORM B)
• Include details about what the event hopes to achieve, and how this will be put in practice, for example, is the event raising awareness of a particular issue, or updating physicians on an ongoing study? (MDC/CPD FORM B)
• What specific skills/knowledge will participants acquire during the event? (MDC/CPD FORM B)
• List what the delegates should have achieved by the end of the sessions for example, will they be able to demonstrate a particular skill, recognize a specific condition, interpret results etc?
• Include a detailed programme of the event. This should include an hourly breakdown and a brief description of the sessions.
• A full list of speakers/facilitators. This must include details about the positions they hold, where they are based and what speaking experience they have in relation to the topic discussed.
• A cheque/cash for the applicable fee.

Check Lists:
All organizers of approved events are required:

• To keep an attendance record of their meetings. These records should be kept by organizers for a minimum of two years and made available to MDC on request. It is not necessary to send these to the Secretariat, unless they are requested. Organizers should supply attendance records within one month of the initial request for these.
• To provide attendance certificates to participants as evidence of their CPD activities attendance. Attendance certificates must be delivered on site at the end of the event.
• To provide evaluation forms to the delegates, to provide a means by which they can easily record their rating of the relevance, quality and effectiveness of the event. (See Appendix 1)

Limitation of approval
The MDC retains its right to withdraw approval for CPD credits at any time for one or more of the following reasons:

• Significant changes to educational content.
• Changes to the presentation format.
• Failure to disclose to the MDC any conflict of interest on the part of the organizer, provider or speakers.
• A perception by attendees of bias on the part of the speakers at the event.
• Advertising presented during the educational part of the event.
• Misrepresentation of the number of CPD credits approved.
• Misrepresentation of CPD approval on promotional or other material to imply endorsement.
• Misrepresentation of the name of the MDC for any event.

Guidance on statements regarding allocation of CPD credits:

• A simple statement of the number of credits allocated to the event should be made.
• No other sentence should include reference to the CPD credit (e.g. “Attend this meeting and obtain 14 credits”).
• The font size of the credit statement should match that of the general information given in the promotional material.
• No statement of the number of credits allocated should be made until that has been confirmed by the MDC (e.g. “28 credits applied for” is unacceptable, “CPD approval applied for” is acceptable).

   Get a copyof the Booklet: - Information and Guidelines for Providers 

Application for CPD Provider Certification

Application for CPD Programme Accreditation