RCSI to launch CPD programme for NCHDs
RCSI President Mr Kenneth Mealy will today launch the College’s Continuous Professional Development Programme for NCHDs. This extensive programme of 75 courses has been developed to support NCHDs at all stages of their careers in meeting their professional development and training needs.
The programme will provide over 450 fully accredited CPD credits and will deliver 1,420 days of training to NCHDs over the next year.
Speaking ahead of today’s launch, Mr Mealy said: “Healthcare is an increasingly complex work environment. The expectations and needs of patients and society are rapidly evolving, with patients demanding greater clarity and involvement in their healthcare. Effective leadership with managerial and administrative skills is vital for doctors, as is the ability to communicate effectively with patients and colleagues and to work safely and effectively in teams. These skills are particularly important in over-crowded and under-staffed hospital environments.”
Mr Mealy said that: “As a College, we recognise the challenges facing young doctors working in a stressed health service and we have a responsibility to provide doctors with the practical tools and resilience and interpersonal skills to thrive professionally and personally.”
The RCSI CPD programme has been developed based on feedback from NCHDs across the health service and is designed in such a way that NCHD’s can choose and plan a portfolio of education to meet their career and development needs. Along with an online course on professionalism, the courses on offer cover a broad range of development areas including surgical and technical skills, emergency medicine, personal development, quality improvement and clinical audit, research, human factors and patient safety.
Mr Kieran Ryan, Managing Director of Surgical Affairs, RCSI, said: “RCSI, as the national training body for surgeons, is committed to supporting surgeons at all stages of their careers and meeting their professional development and training needs. RCSI’s new clinical simulation suite at 26 York Street enables us to offer a wide range of courses in a world-class learning environment.”
Mr Ryan acknowledged the support for the programme from the HSE NDTP unit. Each course on the programme is free-of-charge to NCHDs working in the HSE.
All doctors in Ireland holding Specialist, General or Supervised registration with the Medical Council is legally obliged to maintain professional competence by enrolling in a professionalism competence scheme and meeting the requirements of those schemes. The PCS year begins on 1 May and ends on 30 April. Doctors are required to obtain 50 credits in each PCS year.
RCSI is ranked among the top 250 (top 2%) of universities worldwide in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings (2018) and its research is ranked first in Ireland for citations. It is an international not-for-profit health sciences institution, with its headquarters in Dublin, focused on education and research to drive improvements in human health worldwide. RCSI is a signatory of the Athena SWAN Charter.
