CEimpact Podcast

What's Your Plan? Rethinking Professional Development for Preceptors

November 29, 2023 • CEimpact

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The world of healthcare is changing and so are our students and residents. If you are in a precepting role, you are experiencing some challenges in navigating these new waters.

In this episode, Logan Murry, CPD champion, makes professional development practical, effective, and intentional. Listen in to learn how taking time to practice intentional CPD can make you a more effective, and more fulfilled preceptor.

Host
Kathy Schott, PhD
Vice President, Education & Operations
CEimpact

Guest
Logan T. Murry, PharmD, PhD
Assistant Director of the Continuing Pharmacy Education Accreditation Program
Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE)

Get CE: CLICK HERE TO CPE CREDIT FOR THE COURSE!

CPE Information
 
Learning Objectives
At the end of this course, preceptors will be able to:
1. Describe the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) cycle and its key components.
2. Articulate the value of practicing intentional CPD as a preceptor.

0.05 CEU/0.5 Hr
UAN: 0107-0000-23-390-H99-P 
Initial release date: 11/29/2023
Expiration date: 11/29/2024
Additional CPE details can be found here.

The speakers have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose.

This program has been:
Approved by the Minnesota Board of Pharmacy as education for Minnesota pharmacy preceptors.

Reviewed by the Texas Consortium on Experiential Programs and has been designated as preceptor education and training for Texas preceptors.

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to Preceptor Practice, ce Impact's podcast, created specifically for pharmacy preceptors. Each month, we cover a topic that is focused on helping you connect to resources and ideas that can help you improve your precepting practice, become a more effective teacher and mentor, and balance the business that comes with these additional but important responsibilities. In today's episode, we're talking about CPD Continuing Professional Development for Preceptors. I know, I know it's a term that sounds way too academic and probably something that you don't really think you need. I'd like to challenge you to think again. Studies show that an intentional approach to professional development not only leads to changes in how we practice, but also how we precept, and it's no secret that growth and development can help us avoid burnout and enhance our own sense of accomplishment and career satisfaction. When CE Impact first began creating courses for preceptors years ago, we actually got some pushback. Preceptors thought they didn't need it and migrated to clinical topics instead. As our world changes and the students we engage with are changing, I think I'd really be hard pressed to find a preceptor who didn't have something they were struggling with as an educator.

Speaker 1:

In this episode, I talk with CPD Champion Logan Murray. Logan is a fairly recent graduate himself and also completed his PhD clearly a lifelong learner, listen in to learn how taking time to practice intentional CPD can make you an even better and more gratified preceptor. Hi, logan, thanks so much for being here today, as we were kind of warming up for this conversation. We're chuckling because Logan and I actually just spent the last three days together at a meeting and now here we are in Zoom getting together to talk about CPD for preceptors. So, yeah, thanks for being here, logan, could we maybe start by just having you share a little bit about yourself and how you became the CPD guru that you are today and what your journey's kind of looked like in the last few years?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, absolutely, and thanks Kathy for having me so really went to pharmacy school and at the University of Iowa During that time really started to get interested in assessment, individual development and overall student success and then, as a result of that interest, ended up going back and getting my PhD at the University of Iowa, again focusing on community pharmacy enhanced services.

Speaker 2:

How could we support the profession in developing those services and then also supporting our preceptors and our students in their own kind of development and skill acquisition that would allow them to enter practice and able to continue to advance the profession. So that was really kind of my interest and entry into continuing professional development and then realized that it was kind of a much more formal process than I think I ever really gave it credit for while going through pharmacy school and grad school, creating individual development plans reflecting on my learning needs, reflecting on what my experience was over the course of the year and then creating new smart goals for the following year and realized how instrumental that process was in my own individual development, how instrumental it is for a lot of pharmacists that go through that process, and then thinking about how we could increase both awareness of that process and facilitate a really meaningful process for learners to go through the CPD cycle to really identify their goals, identify their strengths and weaknesses, and then engage in meaningful education to do so.

Speaker 2:

So that was really kind of my entry into CPD, and then it's been really exciting to understand more about the formal process and what that could look like for pharmacy education as a whole.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and as a member of the ACPE team now you get to educate all kinds of people on CPD and what that means and how it can be so useful in practice. So can you just maybe talk briefly just for those that might not be as familiar with the formal process. You know what is the CPD cycle when you refer to that, what are the components, and then how does that maybe play out in you know, healthcare, pharmacy practice? Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2:

So I can read you the definition from ACPE, which is CPD is defined as a self-directed, ongoing, systematic and outcomes focused approach to lifelong learning that is applied into practice. And really I like to think about it as you know the specific processes of learning. So you know, are we reflecting on our learning needs, are we identifying those learning needs, what activities are we participating in that ultimately address those learning needs? And then how are, I think, most importantly, how are we applying that learning into practice? So really going through the different steps of the CPD cycle. So you know, reflect, plan, learn, evaluate, apply and record and review. So really, you know, each individual component of that cycle allows the learner to kind of walk through what a lot of us do on a daily basis, but in a more formalized and structured way. So that's really how I think about it is, you know the process of learning and then you know engaging in those specific activities which ultimately facilitate learning.

Speaker 1:

Right, no, that's great. Yeah, I mean the things. Those are things that we're likely doing in an informal capacity all the time and we aren't necessarily realizing it, or because we're not engaging in it more intentionally. You know, we're maybe just scratching the surface of sort of the process and not maybe getting as much of the benefit out of really approaching it in an intentional way. Can you talk a little bit about what you know, how you see that playing out in pharmacy practice? Maybe a couple of exemplars or an example about how that might play out for a pharmacist or a pharmacy technician or another healthcare professional?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, absolutely, and I really like the word intentionality. You know intentional that you use there. And again, it really is a process that I think you know most pharmacists that I know, friends from school, go through this process. It's just you know how structured is it and are you, I think, most importantly, at the end of you know that process, are you really thinking about what's next? And so that level of intentionality really makes the whole process, I think, more meaningful.

Speaker 2:

In terms of the context of pharmacy practice, I think the nice thing about CPD is that it really is conducive for, you know, pharmacists in a wide variety of practice settings you know that could be in the community setting, that could be in the inpatient setting and for, you know, for a lot of folks in the non-traditional you know pharmacy roles. I think the ways that we've, you know, had conversations about CPD being used is at the state board of pharmacy level as a way of, you know, creating an educational plan after an individual receives disciplinary action. So, you know, helping individuals identify those you know learning opportunities and then helping them plan that process. I think we've also talked about it a lot at the college and school of pharmacy level, both for faculty and students. So again that individual development plan component, can we help faculty plan and reflect on kind of their individual goals for that year and same with students?

Speaker 2:

And then I think a big one that we've talked about and think about a lot is, you know both employers, you know helping our, you know employees develop and identify those, you know new skills that might be necessary to take care of patients or participate in pharmacy practice. And then a big one which I know preceptor practice focuses on, is preceptors and residents. So you know how can we not only develop our preceptors but how can preceptors use a CPD process to create meaningful rotation experience and residency experiences that help individuals identify not only their you know learning needs during that experience but facilitate kind of that lifelong learning mentality and then also kind of really I mean plan their careers moving forward. So what's the next step after this residency experience?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so I'd like what you say about sort of demonstrating that process or being transparent about that process in practice, because one of the one of our obligations, you know, as as preceptors, is to teach critical thinking, to foster critical thinking, to foster reflective practice, and you know those are all components of, you know, the CPD process and helping learners, whether they're residents or students, understand what they know and don't know, and figure out what they need to do to get to the next level, right. So, yeah, you've kind of touched on that. Okay, do you have any examples, logan, of a mentors or preceptors that really impacted your experience as a learner and what that looked like, like how did they, how did they do to CPD themselves and how, how, how did they make sure that you understood that that's what was happening and what that meant for them?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think that's a you know, a great question.

Speaker 2:

And also I mean again thinking about my introduction to CPD and you know, before I was more intentional about it on my own. I think I saw, you know, a lot of pharmacy faculty that I trained with and a lot of folks that you know I trained with in grad school, creating these kind of environments of vulnerability that really facilitated and encouraged a growth mindset. So, you know, it's not I never went into you know rotations or specific experiences thinking I'm not good at this. It was always I'm not good at this yet.

Speaker 2:

And so really having people model that for me and realize that you know okay, like it's okay not to know this and I think all pharmacists will tell you that like one of the most important questions that you can, you know, or if you don't know an answer to a question, one of the most important things you can say is I don't know. And so having people model that and really emphasize the importance of that process and then, importantly, what are you going to do to actually address that knowledge gap? I think Seeing my you know preceptors that I had mentors model that and then also have those conversations with me, was really instrumental in my own development and, you know, providing me with the necessary skills that only engage in CPD myself but to continue kind of modeling that process for for students that I've precepted.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no, that's great. I mean, I'm thinking even about past Podcast episodes that we've done. We've talked a lot about growth mindset. We've talked about a lot about what we had an episode on creating a philosophy of failure, basically. So, you know, creating a safe learning environment where you don't have to come in knowing everything and and and sort of modeling that. And I love what you said about I don't know it yet and you know that's such a great, healthy approach to learning. All the time Is, I don't know it, but I can figure it out and if I can find the right resources and the right supports, you know I can get myself to that next thing.

Speaker 2:

So yeah, I think along those lines to Kathy.

Speaker 2:

It's 1 thing that you know. As a pharmacist and going through a lot of training, I felt like all of my goals really in is important to have time bound goals, but it's also important to recognize when you know you complete a cycle or you go back and reflect on your past year's goals and it's like, okay, I met 3 of the 5. Which is, it's great, but not perceiving that as failure. But okay, what can I do this next year? Or what do I, what do I need to do differently to make sure that I'm meeting those additional goals? And I think that's another really Beneficial component of CPD and something we don't always think about is Okay, here's what I wanted to complete this year, and CPD allows you to kind of embrace those opportunities to restructure your learning or take a different approach the following year or, you know, the following couple of years to really, you know, make a meaningful impact on your own knowledge. So I think that's a really kind of fun piece that I took me a long time to appreciate as well.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, we have a lot of conversations here as a team just in the process of strategic planning.

Speaker 1:

When are we done with something that we said we were going to do, you know. And then, and also you know, we might have 1 year, 3 year, 5 year goals, but the environment changes or the people change, or the, you know, the healthcare challenges change and so we have to shift our mindset To you know, and shift those goals to address whatever it is. When I think about preceptors, you know lots of things change that might shift how they approach preceptor professional development, specific to their teaching and mentoring. You know there's a lot of talking from C education about you know sort of the student body is changing post COVID, you know, and how, what skills might you need as a preceptor to meet those new students where they are based on the challenges they've experienced in the last 4 to 5 years. So, you know, having that flexibility, I think CPD, an intentional approach to CPD, really provides a flexible infrastructure that allows you just to kind of keep moving through the cycle and shifting as you need to and making changes.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely yeah. The flexibility is, in my opinion, a huge benefit, especially in the ever changing you know landscape of pharmacy practice.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah for sure, and lots of new challenges. So, as far as barriers to practicing CPD in its truest sense, you know in your experience you've done a lot of research and a lot of had a lot of conversations around this concept you know what are the common barriers that folks experience and how, how do you ever come some of those.

Speaker 2:

Again, I think another great question and yeah, this is when I certainly don't have all of the answers to, I think, from my awareness of, in just conversations that I've had, and some of the scholarship that exists, obviously, some of the big ones are always, you know, time, how do I, how do I make time to do this? And then I think another one is you know what is meaningful reflection and you know how do I do CPD. You know how do, how do I reflect in a meaningful way? And I think that this is an opportunity for you know providers, preceptors, especially to you know work with students to create that structured process early in the educational experience and then that allows them to, you know, be okay. This is what it is. And as I go into practice, you know I'm a little bit more malleable when it comes to identifying and knowing what my learning needs are.

Speaker 2:

I think other barriers that we see is support. We've seen this with the international models of CPD, specifically with New Zealand. All of the pharmacists that participated in their CPD portfolio process said that the peer support was such a hugely instrumental component of their ability to actually engage in this process. That community element of pharmacy is really important Having a peer, having a mentor that can really guide you through this process. Again, what a perfect role for preceptors. Then I think other barriers is the onus is obviously on the individual to identify their own learning needs. But when we think about organizations and employers really helping staff employees, residents, pharmacists creating that designated time and incentivizing and placing emphasis on how important this process can be for maintaining competence but then also developing new skills and innovating within your own individual setting, I think providing that support, both on an organizational level and on an individual level, is really both a barrier but has the potential to be a huge facilitator.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that makes sense. I know when we first started years ago I mean, we've been creating pre-separate development education for many years now but I know when we first began there was a sense among preceptors that they didn't really need development in the teaching and mentoring space. That maybe, I don't know, it was something that just came naturally or was part of your style or whatever. We created a journal club that was more of a collaborative learning experience, hoping that would be the hook for folks to engage in the education. But the reality is this teaching and mentoring component is so important and such a big part of what you do every day as a pharmacist, whether it's your mentoring students, residents, or your mentoring new practitioners or new colleagues or any of those things. So I think we can't discount the importance of thinking about the whole practitioner and what we need on all of those fronts, not just clinical knowledge and skills. Yeah, I agree.

Speaker 2:

I think that's something that took me some time to learn and figure out is my precepting style worked really well for some students and that's great, but it wasn't the silver bullet for every single student that came through an experience that I was responsible for. So having as many different tools and as many different resources and approaches to precepting and understanding the student is an individual learner and that that experience could look a variety of different ways for them, they also come to that experience at a different place. So where I found a lot of benefit of CPD was realizing that I was probably a fine preceptor but there were definitely opportunities for me to improve based on students' different skills and needs, like we talked about earlier. So as the students change, we also, as preceptors, have to be flexible and willing to take different approaches that facilitate those meaningful learning environments.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that makes sense. I'm sure you were more than just a fine preceptor. That's a four letter word.

Speaker 2:

I appreciate that. Yes, thank you.

Speaker 1:

Well, I didn't prep you with this question, logan, before we were when we were chatting earlier. But for folks who want to try to start taking a more intentional approach to this, what's the right? It's a good place to start. I mean, what would be kind of a couple of key little pearls that you might share that could get folks on the pathway.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think for me it would be revisiting a concept that we talked about earlier, which is that intentionality. And then not only just being intentional, because again, these are processes that pharmacists are doing, a bunch preceptors are already doing, but really making them intentional. And I think, along with that intentionality comes meaningful reflection and then also, I think, goal development. So if you could just start with, you know, reflecting around your own practice experience, reflecting on your abilities as a preceptor and there's tons of different competencies that exist out there that allow you to think about the skill set that you know you're encouraged to have, which, again, using that kind of competency based approach, really brings in some of that intentionality. So, you know, really reflecting in a meaningful way. And then, I think, importantly and I'll, you know, literature supports this but documenting that reflection. And then also documenting, you know, measurable and achievable goals.

Speaker 2:

So what do you want to really make? A meaningful, you know, strive to change within the next 12 months, and that could be something like I want to develop a new tool or resource for my rotation students. Or, you know, I want to participate in three specific, you know, continuing education activities that are focused on providing meaningful feedback or providing, you know, safe and effective feedback for students. So really creating those you know measurable and intentional goals, I would say, is really the starting place and, you know, being honest with yourself when it comes to those opportunities for improvement and taking that growth mindset approach. So knowing that you know we all really care about student success and when we're precepting we care about, you know, all of those different experiences that we're creating, but thinking about the opportunities that we have to improve in a in an honest way.

Speaker 2:

So those would be the two that you know intentionality, and then really just starting and being honest with ourselves and our reflection and also in, you know, making our goals.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's great. Intentionality and honesty, those are probably two pretty good rules for life in general.

Speaker 1:

I think, we, you know we've always. It's tempting to treat CPD as an academic concept that you know it's oh, that's just, they just need that in academia. But in reality it's, it's a pretty practical approach to pretty much anything we do and the more intentional we are about our own professional development, the more success we're going to see. Whatever success looks like to you right, and you know, of course there's literature that suggests an intentional approach to CPD brings job satisfaction and fulfillment and all those things. So, yeah, this has been a really helpful conversation and just kind of I will do a quick sneak peek here. But advisory group we met with an advisory group a couple weeks ago and it was something that came up, was really kind of an aha moment for me that I hadn't really thought about. And one of the members of that team said you know, as a, as pharmacist, we go to CE for you know that baseline disease state management. You know the clinical education, staying up data and guidelines, you know all those things. What do we need to know to be clinically relevant? You know. And experts, medication and other experts, you know in our field. But she said when it comes to professional development, they look elsewhere, they don't even look at CE for professional development and that really, you know I get that. I mean that's not always available.

Speaker 1:

You know we have, you know, created a lot of procedures for preceptors that are accredited, but it doesn't cover all the bases and you know there has to be multiple elements of that. So we've been talking about CBD for a long time. You know did a pilot in Iowa years ago. You know lots of, and other states were involved in that, but it feels like CBD as a concept is getting a lot more traction right now. In practice. Mean, bps is now requiring 20 hours of CBD for renewals. You know you're seeing it as a, you know more of a mainstream everyday concept in lots of areas. So can you talk a little bit about some? You know the resources that ACP has been working on and what opportunities there might be for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to document their CBD and things to engage them in the cycle and basically have that effort acknowledged.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, absolutely. And you know to your point, kathy. I do want to acknowledge, you know, the 10 plus years of work within pharmacy education. That has been done, you know, by a bunch of individuals that are all really passionate about education and in supporting professional development for the pharmacy workforce. So I want to acknowledge all those folks as well.

Speaker 2:

From an ACPE standpoint, starting January 1st of 2024. There will be a CPD accreditation pathway where providers are eligible to develop CPD programs for learners and then submit those for review. Through that process, learners will be able to receive CPD units for completing those specific components of the cycle that we talked about earlier. So again, that intentionality component, if a learner completes, you know, a meaningful reflection and the provider reviews that they're able to award, you know, 2 units for that specific activity. So trying to provide some, you know, incentive Via CPD units through the for the learning process, in addition to those meaningful CPE activities that learners are already engaging in.

Speaker 2:

So trying to create that hybrid model. For you know, we know that our providers are making tremendous strides to delivering meaningful and valuable education related to a wide variety of topics for individuals to learn. But then also can we help learners receive that credit for the other things they're doing outside of those educational experiences, to advance themselves, take care of their patients. They become better preceptors and ultimately move the profession forward, so trying to accommodate all the different, you know, both the learners and the learning that is being completed by by the pharmacy profession.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, absolutely yeah. We've got to move away from the check the box approach to continuing education and professional development and get to a space where you know folks are acknowledged for their own self directed ongoing work that they're doing. You know that makes their education and that's really relevant and specific to them.

Speaker 2:

So yeah, and to that point, the you know one of the values of CPD, like we said, applying it into practice. So can can we use CPD as the approach to really, you know, move the needle forward from a, you know, a profession standpoint and also support, support the profession as we continue to go through the changes that were that we're currently seeing.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, well said Well, thank you so much, logan. It was a pleasure to talk with you and I look forward to continuing this work with you.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely, it's been great. And yeah, a long time no see after three days off. So thanks, kathy, I appreciate it.

Speaker 1:

All right, take care. Continuing professional development, or CPD, may sound academic, but it is likely a process you engage in every single day. Recognizing areas where you might need more clinical information or knowledge, setting goals even if they're just informal ones, identifying evidence based sources for necessary information, engaging in learning and applying what you've learned to practice is really second nature, so why not apply those same principles to your development as an educator? Engaging in professional development can be energizing and rewarding and, as importantly, sets an example for students and residents who have their entire careers ahead of them. Put them on a path to career satisfaction by transparently engaging in your own professional development while mentoring students and residents in theirs.

Speaker 1:

I've linked some additional resources in the show notes for you, including courses that can provide a jumpstart to your CPD journey and a couple of articles I referenced earlier in the podcast. Be sure to check them out. As always, be sure to check out the full library of courses available in Preceptor by Design on the CE Impact website. Be sure to ask your experiential program director or your residency program director, if you will remember, so that you can access it all for free. Thanks again for listening and I'll see you next time on Precept to Practice.