The link between PDP and CPD
PDP is a requirement for most staff involved in Medical Illustration whether employed by the NHS, Universities or self-employed and should be an integral part of our everyday activities whether students, educators or practitioners. Simplistically the key difference between PDP and CPD is the focus; PDP is about how we plan our personal learning in support of our careers and professional development and helps you to plan your CPD, CPD is about our learning but also about the relationship between what we learn, the needs of clinical teams and the impact on patient care. So the two are very much linked. When we are involved in undertaking our CPD this is part of our PDP i.e. part of our planned learning and development and when we are following through the PDP cycle and doing our planned learning activities then we are doing our CPD.