CPDmatch FAQs

What is CPD?

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is a continuing learning process, outside of formal undergraduate and postgraduate training that helps healthcare professionals maintain and improve their skills and performance to practice safely. It covers the development of knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours across all areas of professional practice. It includes both formal and informal learning activities.

How do I find CPD?

Adverts for CPD were traditionally found on posters, in journals and bulletins or delivered by mailshot. Increasingly you’ll likely be receiving emails, visiting your College/Association/Society website or using a search engine. There’s so much education out there but finding it can become overwhelming, and many healthcare professionals miss out on local or virtual events which may be more relevant to their needs. It’s for this reason, we designed CPDmatch, to enable all healthcare professionals to easily find relevant, accessible and sustainable education for their professional development needs.

Who judges whether the CPD I undertake is relevant?

Whilst your CPD needs should ideally be identified during the appraisal process, these can change during a year (e.g., the need for us all to become rapidly educated on Covid-19). You are the person who understands your needs the best and, as long as you can justify why you are spending time undertaking the activity, you will be fine.

What are CPD points?

CPD ‘points’ are used in some professions (e.g., UK medicine) as a way of recognising time spent undertaking accredited educational and training activities. Ensure you understand your regulator’s requirements as there may be a minimum number you are required to accrue over an appraisal or revalidation cycle and your appraiser will follow this guidance. Regardless of whether education has CPD points ascribed or not, you must always reflect upon and record the outputs from the time spent undertaking the activity.

Does all my CPD have to be accredited?

No. It would neither be possible nor appropriate to just undertake accredited CPD. For example, the most up-to-date healthcare education can often be found in peer-reviewed journals and yet the articles themselves are not accredited by the process utilised for courses and conferences. Check with your regulator as to the amount of accredited education you are required to undertake.

What is CPDmatch?

CPDmatch is a website for healthcare professionals, employing organisations and supplier industries to find the educational resources required to deliver net zero sustainable healthcare and become confident in communicating and inspiring others to tackle the triple planetary crisis of climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss. CPDmatch has been developed by SDG4 Ltd, not-for-profit environmental and social enterprise.

What sustainability education can I find on CPDmatch?

Education subjects on CPDmatch are grouped into categories primarily focussing on the triple planetary crisis of climate change, pollution and loss of biodiversity and how these threaten the health of people through food insecurity, infectious diseases, heat and weather-related impacts. We want healthcare professionals to understand the resultant pressures on their own clinical area to enable them to mitigate risk, adapt and design solutions.

We also wish to equip healthcare professionals with the knowledge to keep themselves and their families physically and mentally healthy and to develop professionally as leaders, educators and communicators. We want to increase awareness of global challenges and why we must extend the premise of first, do no harm from the individual patient to the planet and all those impacted by our actions. We also include education relating to research and innovation and that which focuses on keeping all businesses in the healthcare value chain environmentally, socially and financially sustainable.

Is all the education shown on CPDmatch formally accredited?

No. There is so much amazing non-accredited education out there just waiting to be found and it would be wrong to exclude this from CPDmatch. It’s possible for education providers to show the number of CPD points/hours/credits but none of this information is mandated. We believe our site visitors will assess relevance to their needs based upon the description of the content.

Which individuals and organisations can advertise on CPDmatch for free?

Most individuals and organisations qualify for free listing. We only charge a small listing fee (payable through push credits which can be purchased on the site) to companies which supply the healthcare industry with products (e.g., medical devices or pharmaceutical) or services for profit. The education listed must still fit into our subject area categories and align to our ethos and goal.

Useful links:

• The General Medical Council: Continuing Professional Development Guidance for all Doctors
• The Nursing and Midwifery Council: Continuing professional development
• Health and Care Professions Council: Continuing professional development (CPD)
• General Pharmaceutical Council: Revalidation and renewal
• General Dental Council: CPD for dental professionals
• Academy of Medical Royal Colleges: Standards and Criteria for CPD Activities A Framework of Accreditation
• The Royal Society of Medicine: Continuing Professional Development: Standards and Criteria

• The European Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (EACCME)