George Edwards

UK based Knowledge Management consultant George Edwards lived in Malta as a teenager. He blogs here to share his 'iconoclastic musings' with his readers. From his latest entry:

On the radio this morning a doctor's "leader" was telling the world that the public can be assured, that due to their "Continuing Professional Development" scheme, we can all have faith in our Doctors. The government seems to be convinced.

Well, I have quite a lot of faith in my doctor, but not because of CPD. I have spent large chunks of the last 20 years with professional bodies creating and imposing, often at considerable cost, "CPD schemes" on their members. I'll share a fact; in that time not one professional who has been asked to submit a record of their CPD for scrutiny has ever submitted a record showing they have not "done their CPD".

Some gather together and pass their "CPD logs" around amongst colleagues, some go to conferences, or go to courses that count towards CPD requirements, some read magazines, some go on visits, many just dream up "stuff" and write it down as if t was intentional CPD. All these activities meet the "CPD requirement", but not one of them actually proves the person has have learned anything, or even really "kept up to date".

If your doctor is no good, you have a problem. But CPD, touted as part of the "MOT for doctors" (and I produced an "MOT for managers" about ten years ago) proves absolutely nothing. Real professionals just DO keep up to date - it's instinctive. Any system for recording this - the imposed "CPD scheme" doesn't do anything. As ever, people are confusing the regulation with the intended effect.

Up in Yorkshire we have a saying, "Thou dussn't fatten a pig by weighin it". Our government has never understood that.