New guidance on continuing professional development

We have published new guidance to help doctors understand and meet the continuing professional development (CPD) requirements for revalidation.

Continuing professional development: guidance for all doctors describes how you should plan, carry out and evaluate your CPD and how you should reflect on Good Medical Practice when considering your development needs.  

It also covers the importance of doctors taking account of the needs of patients and the healthcare team when considering their own learning needs and explains the relationship between CPD and revalidation. But it is not prescriptive about which, or how much, CPD you should do.  

‘Continuous advances in medical science mean that all doctors need to ensure they are always at the leading edge of medical practice,’ said Professor Sir Peter Rubin, Chair of the GMC.  

‘Lifelong learning is the key to making sure doctors keep up to date. This guidance will support doctors in achieving this and in preparing for revalidation.’  

How did we develop the guidance?

In September 2010, we began a review of our role in CPD. This included seminars, meetings, surveys and research. We developed draft guidance based on this, which we consulted on between October 2011 and February 2012.  

The final guidance includes learning from throughout the review and has been developed with doctors, medical royal colleges, employers and the public.  

Read more about our review.