Training on the use of a bespoke continuing professional development framework improves the quality of CPD records

BACKGROUND: Using continuing professional development (CPD) as part of the revalidation of pharmacy professionals has been proposed in the UK but not implemented. We developed a CPD Outcomes Framework (‘the framework’) for scoring CPD records, where the score range was -100 to +150 based on demonstrable relevance and impact of the CPD on practice. OBJECTIVE: This exploratory study aimed to test the outcome of training people to use the framework, through distance-learning material (active intervention), by comparing CPD scores before and after training. SETTING: Pharmacy professionals were recruited in the UK in Reading, Banbury, Southampton, Kingston-upon-Thames and Guildford in 2009. METHOD: We conducted a randomised, double-blinded, parallel-group, before and after study. The control group simply received information on new CPD requirements through the post; the active intervention group also received the framework and associated training. Altogether 48 participants (25 control, 23 active) completed the study. All participants submitted CPD records to the research team before and after receiving the posted resources. The records (n=226) were scored blindly by the researchers using the framework. A subgroup of CPD records (n=96) submitted first (before-stage) and rewritten (after-stage) were analysed separately. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Scores for CPD records received before and after distributing group-dependent material through the post. RESULTS: Using a linear-regression model both analyses found an increase in CPD scores in favour of the active intervention group. For the complete set of records, the effect was a mean difference of 9.9 (95% CI = 0.4 to 19.3), p-value = 0.04. For the subgroup of rewritten records, the effect was a mean difference of 17.3 (95% CI = 5.6 to 28.9), p-value = 0.0048. CONCLUSION: The intervention improved participants’ CPD behaviour. Training pharmacy professionals to use the framework resulted in better CPD activities and CPD records, potentially helpful for revalidation of pharmacy professionals. IMPACT: • Using a bespoke Continuing Professional Development outcomes framework improves the value of pharmacy professionals’ CPD activities and CPD records, with the potential to improve patient care. • The CPD outcomes framework could be helpful to pharmacy professionals internationally who want to improve the quality of their CPD activities and CPD records. • Regulators and officials across Europe and beyond can assess the suitability of the CPD outcomes framework for use in pharmacy CPD and revalidation in their own setting.

I like the floors

The use of wood in architectural design and the sustainable built environment

History, directory, and gazetteer, of the counties of Durham and Northumberland, and the towns and counties of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Berwick-upon-Tweed. Together with Richmond, Yarn, and detached places appertaining to the bishopric and palatinate of Durham; including copious lists of the seats of nobility and gentry, and a variety of commercial, agricultural, & statistical information ...

Mode of access: Internet.

Part I. A closing roll from Holy and Eternal Wisdom, Mother Ann, Father William and Father James, to the children of Zion : Part II. A sacred covenant of our heavenly parents, sent forth upon earth to their children, at the close of their late manifestation, (on the holy mount of God,) for the purification of Zion and the inhabitants thereof /

Text printed in two columns.

An address, on the influence of the federative republican system of government upon literature and the development of character,

Mode of access: Internet.

A free canal essential to the State's prosperity, with some ideas upon internal navigation : an address delivered before the Buffalo Board of Trade, April 11, 1878 /

Mode of access: Internet.

Mr. Clay's speech on the tariff : or, The "American system," so called ; or, The Anglican system, in fact, introduced here ; and perverted in its most material bearing upon society, by the omission of a system of corn laws, for the protection of agriculture /

Mode of access: Internet.

Virginia cousins: a study of the ancestry and posterity of John Goode of Whitby, a Virginia colonist of the seventeenth century, with notes upon related families, a key to southern genealogy and a history of the English surname Gode, Goad, Goode or Good from 1148 to 1887.

Between p. 50 and p. 85 are extra numbered pages.

Personal recollections of Woodrow Wilson and some reflections upon his life and character,

Mode of access: Internet.

The effect of mechanochemical activation upon the intercalation of a high-defect kaolinite with formamide

The effect of mechanochemical activation upon the intercalation of formamide into a high-defect kaolinite has been studied using a combination of X-ray diffraction, thermal analysis, and DRIFT spectroscopy. X-ray diffraction shows that the intensity of the d(001) spacing decreases with grinding time and that the intercalated high-defect kaolinite expands to 10.2 A. The intensity of the peak of the expanded phase of the formamide-intercalated kaolinite decreases with grinding time. Thermal analysis reveals that the evolution temperature of the adsorbed formamide and loss of the inserting molecule increases with increased grinding time. The temperature of the dehydroxylation of the formamide-intercalated high-defect kaolinite decreases from 495 to 470oC with mechanochemical activation. Changes in the surface structure of the mechanochemically activated formamide-intercalated high-defect kaolinite were followed by DRIFT spectroscopy. Fundamentally the intensity of the high-defect kaolinite hydroxyl stretching bands decreases exponentially with grinding time and simultaneously the intensity of the bands attributed to the OH stretching vibrations of water increased. It is proposed that the mechanochemical activation of the high-defect kaolinite caused the conversion of the hydroxyls to water which coordinates the kaolinite surface. Significant changes in the infrared bands assigned to the hydroxyl deformation and amide stretching and bending modes were observed. The intensity decrease of these bands was exponentially related to the grinding time. The position of the amide C&unknown;O vibrational mode was found to be sensitive to grinding time. The effect of mechanochemical activation of the high-defect kaolinite reduces the capacity of the kaolinite to be intercalated with formamide.