Continuing Professional Development
Continuing professional development (CPD) enables nurses to renew and update knowledge and skills, transferring them to an ever-changing healthcare environment.
CPD exists in different forms and is driven by professional and ethico-legal requirements, and the needs of practitioners to ensure their practice competency.
To provide comprehensive care for an ever-changing demographic of patients in Canada, perioperative nurses need to look beyond the operating room and be aware of issues that are relevant to all nurses in caring for patients. This requires different ways to access evidence-based knowledge acquisition and (re)construction of practices (Mlambo et al., 2021).
General Areas of CPD Focus for Nurses
As the population in Canada diversifies and urbanizes over the next few years, the nursing profession must respond. Nurses are at the forefront of healthcare and are challenged to:
- Identify and address the social determinants of health (SDH).
- Promote health equity and accessibility.
- Reduce health disparities.
- Improve health outcomes.
- Learn about cultural values and life experiences.
- Develop competence in caring for seniors.
- Engage in new professional roles.
- Adapt continually to new technologies.
- Lead and collaborate with other professions and sectors.
(National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine 2021, p. 189)
🧠Graded Activity
In Blackboard, complete the Graded Activity: Metasynthesis Reflection
Exploring the Future of Nursing
The extensive document, The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity, addresses current issues and proposes a way forward for the nursing profession. Although based on an American system of healthcare, the report is relevant to Canadians and globally.
One message that applies to the perioperative setting is the notion of working and caring for patients in a siloed environment. As you listen to the podcast or read the transcription (link below), consider how the surgical patient interfaces with the perioperative environment and the interprofessional team.
How can perioperative nurses perform patient-centric, culturally competent, and equitable care that extends beyond the operating room and ensures safe, successful healthcare outcomes?
Listen to the podcast (22:18) or read the transcript of Episode 8 The Goal for 2030. The future of nursing 2020-2030.
Optional Reflection
Reflect on ideas or strategies that perioperative nurses can engage in to become comfortable with discussing and acting upon the social determinants of health that create patient disparities in the healthcare system. Reference at least one external academic source – feel free to access other chapters or podcast episodes in The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity.