I remember reading somewhere (is it in the Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man?) that Roman Catholic eschatology concerns itself with four last things: death, judgement, heaven and hell. Richard Strauss wrote four last songs, Frühling, September, Beim Schlafengehen and Im Abendrot. As the sun sets on my CPD23 effort, and I offer its lifeless corpse for judgement, I shall tackle it in four parts.
1. First of all, we're asked to identify gaps in experience. This is a little hard, as I've experienced most things in my time. With an eye to the next ten years, the period to retirement, depending on how much more of our pension funds the coalition will rob to give to the financial institutions. As far as the skills needed to survive in the new NHS are concerned, then it seems to me that low cunning and readiness to stab one's colleagues in the back will be helpful. That said, it's clear that there will be enormous needs for information on which to base commissioning decisions, and anyone who can meet those needs should be in a strong position. However, the game is rigged and it may be that the government forces clinical commissioning groups to buy their support services from private sector organisations.
2. As for a Personal Development Plan, I think there are three elements to it:
- continue to develop my theoretical understanding of how knowledge is found and applied in health
- continue to develop my practical skills in finding, appraising and packaging knowledge
- submit my application for Fellowship of CILIP (which has been in gestation for far longer than an elephant's pregnancy)
3. 'Is a PDP a useful way to think about CPD?' Yes, though it has its limits. Plans, once written, can easily be left unchecked and un-updated. I also find them restricting
4. 'Keep blogging'. I certainly shall; I'm about to mark this blog's eight birthday. I've greatly enjoyed taking part in CPD23 and, like everyone else, owe a debt to the people who kept us on our toes throughout. It was good to see so many health librarians taking part, contrary to the view expressed by some that there was no point because so many of the tools used were blocked by the over-zealous people in charge of NHS firewalls.
