The ACN's five tips for making CPD work for you

For every nurse across Australia, continuing professional development (CPD) isn’t just a regulatory requirement – it’s a cornerstone of lifelong learning and a pathway to professional excellence.

While the thought of accumulating a minimum of 20 hours of CPD per registration period might sometimes feel like a chore, it needn’t be. By approaching CPD strategically, you can transform it from a compliance exercise into a powerful tool for career advancement and personal growth.

The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) mandates that all registered nurses, except those with student and non-practising registration, engage in CPD activities annually. This commitment ensures that practitioners maintain, improve, and broaden their knowledge, expertise, and competence, ultimately safeguarding public health.

But how can you make this ongoing commitment genuinely beneficial and, dare we say, enjoyable?

Nursing Review sat down with Dr Zachary Byfield, national director of nursing education at the Australian College of Nursing (ACN), to get his best tips on how to make your CPD hours work for you.

“Continuous professional development really plugs into the very essence of what is nursing practice, which is that nurses are in art and science and we work in an ever-evolving field in the healthcare
system,” he explained.

“It should be about closing that knowledge gap and contributing to your further career.”

1. Define your career goals

Chart your desired career path and consider selecting CPD activities relevant to your scope of practice that may help you reach your career goals.

The most effective CPD is purposeful. Instead of simply accumulating hours, consider where you want your career to go. Are you aiming for a leadership role, specialising in a particular area, or perhaps transitioning into education or research?

“The thing that a nurse can really have direct control over is their education,” Dr Byfield said.

“Education is really that pathway and that tool that lets a nurse take charge of their career and decide what they would like to do and how they would actually like to meet that definition of nursing profession.”

By aligning your CPD with your aspirations, each learning experience becomes a stepping stone towards your ultimate professional destination.

“It’s just going to make it easier for you if you actually do CPD that is meaningful for you and you can see a point in doing.”

2. Make use of professional bodies

Become a member of your professional nursing body as they usually offer free or discounted, quality CPD training programs. It’s one of the most practical steps you can take to streamline your CPD journey.

Professional bodies are designed to support their members’ growth and often provide a wealth of high-quality, evidence-based CPD activities, from webinars and workshops to conferences, many of which are free or significantly discounted for members.

For instance, ACN currently partners with the Department of Education to deliver subsidised microcredentials in Parkinson's care and diabetes management.

Microcredentials are bite-sized learning that can be ‘stacked’ towards a graduate certificate.

“Rather than committing to a full programme of study, learners can come along and have a taster […] and then they can add that to their record and it sits there ready for them to stack the next one on top, until eventually, at the end of the day, they can look at building a whole programme and be awarded a graduate certificate,” Dr Byfield explained.

Beyond the formal training, becoming a member of a professional nursing body also allows you to connect with a community of peers, foster networking opportunities and share learning experiences that are themselves a form of professional development.

3. Don’t leave it till the night before!

The Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) asks that you spread your CPD learning out over the year. Don’t treat it as a box-ticking exercise – get the best return on your investment of time, and use your CPD learning to grow professionally.

The NMBA guidelines strongly recommend spreading your CPD activities throughout the year, rather than cramming them into the final weeks before re-registration.

CPD isn’t just about making sure you do the hours required; it’s about maximising the impact of your learning. Dr Byfield said the best way to think of CPD is as a continuous cycle, not a one-off event.

“Every day it seems like there’s a new policy or a new or a new way of doing things, so continuing professional development is the pathway in which the nurse keeps up to date with that best practice, and makes sure that when someone says they’re a nurse in Australia that it means that they are practising in that best practise mindset,” he said.

Rushing through hours diminishes the opportunity for meaningful reflection and application, turning a valuable exercise into a mere administrative task.

4. Log your hours

Effective record-keeping is crucial, not only for audit purposes but also for your own professional reflection. The NMBA requires you to keep records of your CPD activities for five years.

Dr Byfield advises nurses to ensure they “chart contemporaneously,” warning that leaving it late means you’ll be scrambling to remember when you attended a conference or where you put that certificate.

“I’m still very much a pen and paper person and still record all my CPD in just my booklets and my folder,” Dr Byfield said.

Fortunately, there are now also excellent digital tools available now that make logging your CPD hours quick and easy. Platforms like the ACN Professional Portfolio, Florence from APNA, or the Ausmed CPD App allow you to easily record your activities, upload evidence, and reflect on your learning in one centralised place.

Whether you prefer an app or a traditional pen and paper system, the key is to use whatever works for you and make sure that it helps you be efficient.

5. Learn which activities count as CPD

CPD can now include listening to a podcast or reading a journal article – as long as you document your learning, and reflect on how it’s contributed to your professional development.

Perhaps one of the most liberating aspects of the NMBA’s CPD guidelines is the breadth of activities that qualify. It’s not just about formal courses or conferences.

The key is that the activity must be relevant to your area of professional practice, have clear aims, and, critically, be documented with reflection.

“One of the good things about CPD is that it can be anything that you make it,” Dr Byfield explained.

“The rules of CPD are that they have to contribute to your professional development and that you
have to engage in reflection around them.”

This means that engaging with a relevant podcast during your commute, reading a peer-reviewed journal article, participating in a clinical debrief, or even mentoring a junior colleague can all count towards your CPD hours. The crucial element is your ability to articulate what you learned and how it will impact your practice.

Meeting your CPD requirements doesn’t have to be a burden. By adopting a strategic, proactive, and reflective approach, leveraging the resources offered by professional bodies, utilising digital tracking tools, and embracing the diverse range of learning opportunities available, you can transform CPD into a powerful catalyst for your ongoing professional success and satisfaction.

It’s an opportunity to invest in yourself, ensuring you remain at the forefront of nursing practice in Australia.