We are a small group of ODPs’ (operating department practitioners) who maintain & develop perioperativeCPD. We are based in Scotland and our aim is to produce quality, accessible and free CPD for anyone working in the peri-operative environment.

perioperativeCPD is used by over 5000 ODPs’ and anaesthetic assistants from over 20 countries every month. It is the number one CPD provider for Operating Department Practitioners in the U.K. and anaesthetic technicians in Australia & New Zealand. It is also an essential resource for expats anaesthetic assistants working in the Middle East.

More importantly increasing numbers of practitioners from low resource (previously known as the third world) countries are using the site to update their practice.

By visiting this website you have some idea that Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is required by your registering body.

It is best that you read what is required for your specific profession as each body will have a guide on their websites. A common theme is that a variety of CPD is needed and that a little more often is a preferred way. The key is recording everything as you do it as it is easy to forget what you have done it a couple of months later.

Reflection is also important and a requirement of many registering bodies. There is a reflective template on the site you are free to use.

Yes, The costs of running the site are covered by the volunteers although we are grateful to Proact Medical for their sponsorship as this helps a lot.
We are committed to ensuring CPD is not a burden for already hardworking perioperative colleagues.

At the end of each test, at the bottom of the results page, the questions are listed with the answers you got correct. We do not give the answers to the questions you get wrong.

Before we started doing this we would have people answering ‘A’ for every question, copying all the correct answers and then getting 100% next time around without even reading the module.  I hope this helps and is not inconvenient as it helps us keep the tests creditable.

Our CPD comes under either the category of self-directed study or professional study through online learning. Although by adding a reflective piece on why you chose that module and what you have learnt it adds a new dimension and can potentially double the hours you can claim.  For more information on what you need see your regulatory bodies website as they all have their own specific requirements.

Perioperative CPD are committed to providing free quality education for everyone working in the theatre environment. ODPs, theatre nurses, anaesthetic assistants and technicians, everyone is welcome. Our on-line CPD site enables this with free open access modules for all. We particularly welcome those working in resource low countries.

Verifiable means that we can prove to your regulatory body which modules were sat by you and when. We are more than happy to do so. This is why it is important that you fill in all details correctly. We keep all pass grades for two years.

Yes, we are always looking for help. Have you written an article that you would like to get published? Many of our articles are written by users of the site.

You can also be a great help by providing us with feedback/ letting us know how we are doing and by pointing out any errors on the site. Despite our best efforts they do occasionally sneak in.

But the best way of all to help is let others know about us. Share away, like our Facebook page, the more people who use the site the more worthwhile it is for us to keep it going.

We would love to have more scrub modules but scrub is very speciality based. The needs someone working in neuro are different from someone in orthopaedics. We are working on some more generic modules and will have them up as soon as possible.

We are often asked why the tests are so hard.  There are 2 reasons for this.

First, it is an open book test. Open book tests are always harder. You can have the module open in front of you when you sit the test. All the questions are based on the modules and there is plenty of time to complete them. 

Secondly we need to maintain a certain level of difficulty to ensure our own legitimacy. If the tests were too easy then it destroys our reputation as a provider of quality reputable CPD.

We think the tests are fair and while some questions may be tricky the answers are all found in the module article.

We try to release 10-20 modules a year but this can vary as all work is done by volunteers in their own time.

We are often asked this question.  As our modules are used by a large variety of health care professionals in over 20 countries it is not possible to offer CPD points. This is because each registering body has their own standards and what they require to achieve these standards differs between each of them.

This is why we use a ‘recommended length of study’ system to identify how much work is required by the typical user. This figure does not include the time taken to write a reflective account of your learning.

This is due to copyright issues. The articles are the same but just link to the original source rather than us hosting them ourselves.

Reflection is now a necessary part of most CPD programmes. Love it or hate it, it is here to stay. We have a simple reflective template you can fill in that makes this process as simple as possible.

Learning_module_reflective_template.pdf

Why is it important for me to reflect on my learning?

Reflective learning enables you

• to accept responsibility for your own personal growth
• to see a clear link between the effort you put into your development activity and the benefits you get out of it
• to help see more value in each learning experience, by knowing why you’re doing it and what’s in it for you
• learn how to ‘learn’ and add new skills over time

Learning_module_reflective_template

The perioperativeCPD modules count as online learning under the UK NMC guidelines so you can count the time spent on them towards your re-validation.  You will also need to reflect on your learning. You can use either our reflection template

Learning_module_reflective_template.pdf

or the NMC CPD log found here:

http://www.nmc.org.uk/globalassets/sitedocuments/revalidation/cpd-log.doc

We do not collect any of  your information. Your name and email address and results are provided to us by  periopCPD who run the tests for us. This is for customer service (in case you have questions regarding your tests) and to enable us to provide verification details in case of a CPD audit by your regulating body. This will only be done with your express permission.
All details will be deleted after 2 years or we are happy to do it at any time, just email our education team at perioperativeCPD@gmail.com.
View our full privacy policy here.

Certificates are only awarded if you get a pass mark of over 80%. These are then emailed to you. It is essential that your email address is entered correctly.

Yes you can. If you are a commercial or institutional bodies you need written permission from us. If you link to us or one of our contracted partner sites (i.e. www.periopCPD.com) from within a closed, password protected website we reserve the right to use your name or logo in our website or promotional material.