In this section:
Newsletter: September 2016
In this newsletter
- Message from the Chief Executive
- APC renewals
- Recertification review - project update
- End of year declarations (dentists and dental specialists)
- Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal decision
- Dates to watch
- 2015/16 Annual Report
- Introduction to the Council staff – Strategy and Engagement group
- Orthodontic working group - update
- Practitioner’s Corner
- Case studies
- New Zealand Dental Hygienists’ Association update
- Wellington Regional Dental Service preschool “knee to knee” initiative
- New Zealand Institute of Dental Technology conference
- In the news
Verification of CPD As most of you will be aware, the current recertification programme for dentists and dental specialists is ending on 31 December 2016.
Verification of CPD
As most of you will be aware, the current recertification programme for dentists and dental specialists is ending on 31 December 2016. The Dental Council has decided to waive one of the requirements of this programme. The Council will not require that continuing professional development (CPD) is verified—simply that it is capable of verification.
This does not change the requirements to complete 80 hours of verifiable CPD and 10 peer contact activities.
The Council will still be undertaking random audits at the conclusion of the recertification cycle. Those practitioners have who logged the required number of verified CPD hours and peer contact activities with the New Zealand Dental Association (NZDA) and/or New Zealand Association of Orthodontist’s (NZAO) will be exempt from audit.
The reasoning behind this change is:
- Council’s experience in managing the CPD cycle for dentists and dental specialists in 2012/13 highlighted that the process of verifying CPD activities was not only an extremely labour intensive, and therefore costly, activity but one that produced inconsistent and conflicting outcomes.
- Recognising this, prior to the 2013 conclusion of the CPD cycle for dental therapists, dental hygienists, orthodontic auxiliaries, clinical dental technologists and dental technologists (OHPs), Council agreed to waive the necessity of individual CPD activity verification for OHPs.
- Council agreed to apply the same methodology to the dentists and dental specialist cycle this year.
This means that while the requirement for CPD to be verifiable remains, Council will not be undertaking verification of individual CPD activities for all dentists and dental specialists for the current recertification programme ending on 31 December 2016.
How does this affect you?
All CPD recorded on NZDA or NZAO system
If you have logged the required number of verified CPD hours with the New Zealand Dental Association (NZDA) and/or the New Zealand Association of Orthodontists (NZAO) you do not need to do anything further. You are not required to submit to Council a detailed activities schedule or log. NZDA and NZAO will provide Council with full details of the verified CPD activities you have completed, and you will be exempt from any CPD audit.
Some CPD recorded on NZDA or NZAO system
If you have logged some of your CPD hours with NZDA and/or NZAO, and you have evidence of other verifiable CPD activities you have completed, you must complete and return the CPD Self Declaration to Council. This should be completed on or after 31 December 2016 and returned to Council no later than 20 January 2017.
Although you are not required to submit a detailed schedule or log of your CPD activities to Council, you should retain it for your records pending a possible audit.
No CPD recorded on NZDA or NZAO systems
If you have not used either the NZDA or NZAO CPD logging systems but have evidence of the verifiable CPD activities you have completed, you must complete and return the CPD Self Declaration to Council. This should be completed on or after 31 December 2016 and returned to Council no later than 20 January 2017.
Although you are not required to submit a detailed schedule or log of your CPD activities to Council, we recommend you retain it for your records pending a possible audit.
Other than the verification of CPD being waived by Council, all other aspects of the current recertification programme established under section 41 of the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act 2003 remain unchanged, including the statutory consequences for you should you fail to meet the requirements of the programme.
There is further information on the CPD requirements, including the self-declaration forms, on our website here.
If you have any questions concerning this matter please contact the registration team on 04 499 4820 or by email to inquiries@dcnz.org.nz.