Contemporary challenges of nursing CPD: Time to change the model to meet citizens’ needs

The purpose of this paper is to present the evidence shared with a citizen consensus panel detailing key issues associated with how nursing CPD can best influence the quality of health and social care experienced by citizens and communities. It presents a summary of contemporary theory, research and evidence of the effectiveness of nursing CPD and outlines four key challenges: (i) how to strengthen the focus on patient experience as the starting point for CPD; (ii) the lack of evidence of CPD effectiveness and accountability in its transfer to practice; (iii) evaluation of CPD effectiveness; and (iv) involving citizens in targeting CPD where it is most needed. It briefly describes the methods used to facilitate public consultation through a citizen consensus panel as part of a collaborative project with the RCN Strategic Research Alliance in 2020 and outlines 7 themes identified as important by the public for future development.

The main challenge for nursing is capitalizing on the workplace as a learning resource that can integrate learning with development, improvement, knowledge translation, inquiry and innovation. This requires skilled facilitators, particularly at meso- levels, and systems leaders with the full skillset to develop system-wide cultures of learning that enable everyone to flourish and create good places to work. The paper concludes that the development of CPD process measures would indicate how CPD investment contributes to person-centred, safe and effective care and system transformation and enable commissioners and education providers to optimize CPD’s full potential.