What’s in your wallet? The ideal Registrant’s CE portfolio

The GOC have recently announced a consultation period during which they are inviting the profession to give feedback on the current CET system.  Now that the system is bedding in, there are clearly areas that work better than others so it is now time for the end users to have their say. 

The question is – what should the ideal registrant’s CET portfolio ideally contain?

As a profession surely we should be looking at the community our practice serves and develop our training in line with the services that we provide.  Ideally we should also be updating our clinical skills in areas that are continuously changing and developing, and completing CET  in areas of personal weakness that are relevant to our practice population.  Now that we approach the end of the first year of this current three year cycle, I wonder how many of us have the ideal CET portfolio?

I did not start the year with a personal development plan.  I did not plan my CET in line with my own business plan for the year ahead and took a more ‘suck it and see’ approach.  Despite attempting to become a queen of time management,  I did  not even attempt to plan when I would take time out to complete my CET.  However, if I take a hard look at the CET I have personally completed over the past twelve months, I am glad to say that it has been evenly spread over the year. I have also completed a number of practical skilled workshops, have read a couple of distance learning articles, have taken part in a peer review and have listened to a few talks. I have even received points for a couple of my own articles and talks too.   So, I have obtained my CE over various methods of delivery.  But before I place myself high on the CE pedestal as being a perfect registrant, there a few other points to consider about my portfolio:

Over half of my CET points have been completed within one subject area – Low Vision.  This area of clinical practice is one which I needed the least amount of top up. Arguably, the conference I attended was one that I needed to attended anyway, as it was core to my business interests, so CET points in this area were collected by default.  Furthermore, with hands held high, I have actively avoided anything I found difficult in the optical press.  And so my CET portfolio is currently refreshing those parts that probably did not need refreshing. 

However, the most significant point of note is that I have now completed enough CET points for this entire three year cycle.  Theoretically, this means that if the current system were to remain unchanged, I will not actually need to complete any further CET until the end of the next three year cycle, in 2012. 

I took up this conversation with a few friends and colleagues. Surprisingly, most already had enough CET for the current cycle, with most completing CET in only one or two preferred subject areas.  One friend religiously completes a distance learning article every Sunday afternoon, slipping it in between reading the front page and the sports section of the paper.   He has not attended an event, picked up a Volk lens or looked down a slit lamp in years outside of his own practice doors.  Despite this, he was the one who had a more even spread over the competencies. 

So here’s a collaboration of our ongoing discussions and what we have pulled together on the back of our proverbial fag packet, figuratively speaking.  This is what we felt an ideal CE portfolio should look like:

1. A spread over the competencies.
2. A spread over the delivery mechanisms – a limit on distance learning and a minimum requirement of practical skills workshops.
3. A spread over the three years – a rolling three year cycle in preference to 12 points per year Just in case we need to take sabbatical or two). 

So, should I now be thinking about planning a huge CE event for December 2012 or should we be thinking about what is best for the public?

A link to the consultation pages of the GOC website may be found here. 

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