CPD For Pathology Laboratory Technicians †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the CPD For Pathology Laboratory Technicians. Answer: Pathology testing can be regarded as one of the key medical service, which helps the doctors to chalk out the perfect plans for the patients. Continuation of professional development (CPD) is important for the pathology laboratory technicians as it helps them to be competent with all the modern aspects of histopathology techniques and helps them to be proficient with the progress of medical science. The technicians have to participate in many of the CPD programs to be able to keep up with all the recent trends of laboratory research and practice. This essay will discuss about the activities that can be helpful for the laboratory technicians for their CPD. This essay will also discuss about the recognition and auditing process of CPD. According to the rules, to maintain the professional standards of practice, all fellows and technicians have to undergo the CPD training procedure mandatorily. According to the AMC standard 9.1, all the participates of the CPD program needs to select those activities which are relevant to their learning needs and field of practice (1). Apart from these activities, they also have to participate in some general programs such as occupational health and safety, management, research and communication. The CPD programs in which the laboratory fellows needs to attend minimum 500 hours of professional development activities and education for a cycle of 5 years (2). The criteria also include a clause, which states that one also have to complete 200 hours of the CPD program in a year. There are mainly three types of activities of CPD- Personal activities- To participate in this, a fellow must do a poster presentation or a literature review based on any journal article. The participant also has to make a project or a learning plan based on the identification of any learning need. The learning plan would act like a road map, which would help the participant to achieve that exact learning objective in life (3). Group activities- The group activities involves attending various conferences, workshops or seminar, participation on various group discussion and also involving with various committees such as occupational health and safety committee or risk management committee. Quality activities- It includes the quality assurance activities along with professional and governance activities. These are for improving the pathology practice standard and are the patient outcome. A participant should have to keep records of all the activities he or she attended to improve their CPD. Every professional should keep some minimum data on their records, which includes the date on which he or she performed the activity, the topic name and the description of that activity, the category of the activity and the number of hours taken for doing the activity (4). As all the participants who are undergoing the CPD program is working with the laboratory, proper documentation of their CPD would also enhance the record of the fellow laboratory. In Australia, keeping an everyday journal for CPD is mandatory for every pathological laboratory technicians who is under a CPD scheme. The Board of Education selects one of the three categories of activities each year for audit. The board also randomly chooses the participants for this purpose. The participants taking part in one year of audit gets a grace of five years for participation. However, they again have to be subjected to audit in coming years (5). The participants have to submit their reflective journal entries, attendance statements, invitation letters of the seminars, reports of the projects, abstracts of the reviews, posters, and flyers for the audit. The participants have to ensure that these documents do not disclose any confidential data. NATA or National Association of Tasting Authority is the governmental accreditation body of Australia who inspects and gives accreditation to the laboratories and certify the reference materials throughout Australia. To work in the laboratory accredited by NATA, a laboratory professional have to be competent and have to increase their CPD. Sometimes the labs participates in these technical assessments by NATA have recognition under various CPD schemes (6). To work under NATA, the participants must have professional expertise; knowledge of the NATA recognized activities, analytical approach, communication skills, experience and commitment. In medicine, the advancement of pathology is unstoppable with new molecular and immunological techniques. The technicians working in a pathology laboratory will also have to be advanced and known with the new knowledge and technologies. Their participation in a CPD course is needed for their own development. For participating, they have to properly document their activities, participate in audit and have to be recognized by NATA. These steps would help them to keep pace with the quick advancement of medical technology. Reference: org.au, 2017 [cited 13 October 2017]. Available from: https://www.amc.org.au/files/b637b4920ce666e8687cd8a4a396e7d5bf5fcff1_original.pdf Katsikitis M, McAllister M, Sharman R, Raith L, Faithfull-Byrne A, Priaulx R. Continuing professional development in nursing in Australia: Current awareness, practice and future directions. Contemporary nurse. 2013 Aug 1;45(1):33-45. Lammintakanen J, Kivinen T. Continuing professional development in nursing: does age matter?. Journal of workplace learning. 2012 Jan 6;24(1):34-47. Ross K, Barr J, Stevens J. Mandatory continuing professional development requirements: what does this mean for Australian nurses. BMC nursing. 2013 Mar 27;12(1):9. Adeniran RK, Smith-Glasgow ME, Bhattacharya A, Yu XU. 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