Continuing professional development or CPD is the means by which health professionals maintain, improve and broaden their knowledge, expertise and competence, and develop the personal and professional qualities required throughout their professional lives.
Registered Health Professionals who are engaged in any form of practice are required to participate regularly in CPD that is relevant to their scope of practice in order to maintain, develop, update and enhance their knowledge, skills and performance to help them deliver appropriate and safe care.
As discussed previously Paramedics are not currently registered in Australia and therefore in most states and territories requirements for minimum qualifications, recency or currency of practice, satisfactory conduct, criminal history checks and participation in CPD is not regulated.
For many industrial medics, paramedics and medical first responders there is a potential for deskilling to occur as it is unlikely on a well-managed site that a full range of medical and emergency responses will be necessary that would expose the site medical staff to all of the conditions they have been trained to manage. Cardiac arrest, choking, anaphylaxis, drowning, emergency childbirth and many other medical and emergency situations may not present however the medical staff need to maintain their skill and knowledge to ensure their competence to practice.
For sites who directly employ their own medical staff there may be no other medically qualified site person to determine competency to practice and what scope of practice is within the skill level of the medical responder. In addition it is critical processes are in place that outline how care will be delivered; these processes may be referred to as clinical practice guidelines, clinical guidelines or protocols and they should be evidence based and medically endorsed.
Sitemed believes a CPD program should be developed following a staff skills or competency assessment against the site clinical practice guidelines and a safe level of practice documented for each individual medical responder according to their specific qualifications, skills and experience. This process should also be undertaken in consideration of the site medical risk profile, for example how remote the site is, proximity of external emergency agencies, processes undertaken onsite and chemicals onsite. The medical care provided must also be in compliance with any external standards such as the site drug license and any ambulance licencing requirements if applicable.
Following such an assessment a CPD program should be developed which reinforces and maintains knowledge and skill, addresses any gaps, identifies opportunities for improvement and/or upskilling and has goals and timeframes developed.
Most registered health professions have mandatory requirements for CPD which vary but a base of 30 hours per year of CPD is relatively common and can include a combination of self-directed learning tasks, attendance at conferences and external courses, online learning and mentoring/supervision.
Sitemed delivers a comprehensive service for sites who self-employ site medics, emergency services officers, paramedics and nurses as below
- Provision of site clinical practice guidelines
- Staff competency assessments against guidelines
- Continuing professional development programs delivered either onsite or at one of our national training centres.
- Delivery of Certificate II Medical Emergency First Response
- Delivery of Certificate IV Healthcare (ambulance)
- Provision of nationally accredited first aid training including Occupational First Aid
- Relief medical staff
- On-call doctor
- Advanced Life Support Training (accredited by the Australian College of Critical Care Nurses)
Contact Sitemed for further information 1300 SITEMED (08 8447 2017) www.sitemed.com.au if you would like to discuss how to keep your medical first responders appropriately trained and skilled.