It can be hard enough to find the time to do your Continuous Professional Development (CPD) when you're busy balancing work and home life, but it seems even harder right now. Two years ago I would have had no problem filling the 'Courses and Meetings' page of this website each month, with information about the many events people could attend relating to Healthcare Science (and our many other transferable skills!). I refreshed the pages in January this year, and to be honest the picture still looks bleak - with courses and meetings either cancelled, postponed or moved to online platforms. We've definitely all had to adapt online learning in the last year, and for some of us it's been a realisation that we're not quite as technically savvy as we once were... (Spectrum 48K anyone?!)
As well as the replaced face to face courses and meetings, there are lots of shorter online courses running on a variety of platforms, and I've been actively doing these to help my own CPD over the last year, and prompted by my colleagues asking me where they can find extra online education or training materials at the moment, I thought I'd share some (free!) ideas here.
Employing organisation
Firstly, within organisations there will already be online learning platforms, usually for statutory and mandatory training, but there will also be other courses available, which may have been moved to virtual platforms or e-learning modules.
Professional bodies
Professional bodies are often responsible for formal education programmes, but may also run e-learning, courses and support sessions, either via virtual platforms or social media, e.g. the Institute of Biomedical Science run 'Support Hub' sessions via Zoom and a monthly #IBMSChat.. They may also oversee professional networks and any associated regional meetings. Professional bodies may also accredit learning for their CPD systems.
Mobile apps
Some professional bodies have their own apps with lots of bite size learning, e.g. the Royal College of Pathologists e-CPD, which has all kinds of short courses on the app. One of the benefits of this app is that you get a CPD certificate at the end of the learning, which you can use as part of your CPD record.
Websites
The internet really is a rabbit hole of online learning! If you can bear it right now, Twitter is a good place to start as you will find lots of links to education, articles, meetings etc. You could also try YouTube, where there are videos that can teach you about almost anything, including many amazing Ted Talks. For those of us working in the NHS, there is learning available from Health Education England, NHS Education for Scotland, Health Education and Improvement Wales and the Department of Health for Northern Ireland, as well as other linked websites. I really like the Future Learn website, which has some health and science related courses, but also courses in pretty much anything else you might be interested in. The courses are added via various international universities and are free, but you do have to pay for the certificate at the end, if you want one. I've done courses on science on here, but also mental wellbeing and beginners Italian. Graze mille Future Learn! (and yes, that is about all I can remember 14 months on...)
Podcasts, Articles and Books
I've learned so much about self-improvement, and understanding myself and my relationship with others through podcasts and books. All of these are skills needed to look after yourself and those around you at work and at home - these tools are always needed, but never more so than right now.
All of these examples are free (ignoring articles stuck behind paywalls), but not all of them will give you a formal CPD certificate at the end. Want to know how to make a non-formal learning experience into CPD? Document it and reflect on what you have learned.
As we have seen in the last year, sometimes we just need to find a new way to get around the problem.
Anything I've not thought of, or got some good examples? Let me know, either via the website or on Twitter @hornej13
Learn. Share. Be kind.
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