Occupational therapists

Occupational therapy is a dynamic and ever evolving field of healthcare and so keeping up to date with the latest developments to continually build skills and knowledge is key to future proofing an exciting and fulfilling career.

At Newcastle Hospitals our occupational therapist (OTs) work with both adults and children with a wide range of conditions every day to support them to overcome challenges completing everyday tasks or activities – what we call ‘occupations’.

This may be due to a condition or illness, or during a recovery period following an injury or surgery.

As our Trust offers the second largest breadth of specialist services in the UK, we offer excellent career prospects and are committed to ensuring our OTs have access to all the education and development support that they might need.

CPD Support at Newcastle Hospitals

Career aspirations can be discussed at annual appraisals in close liaison with line managers, or at any other time of the year, to help understand and plan how we can help you to take steps forward and achieve your goals.

For example, you may wish to specialise in a particular area of practice or explore teaching or research. Further training can support you to prepare for a future role – you may wish to become an advanced clinical practitioner or progress into management.

Annual appraisals help to shape personal development plans to set out learning opportunities which can be provided either in-house or externally.

Choosing the right CPD for you

There is a huge and diverse range of learning and development opportunities for you to choose from. We offer a wide variety of courses which are run in-house by our Education Workforce Development team and you can seek advice from our team here at the Newcastle Clinical Skills Academy about what might work for you.

If it’s something relating to leadership that you’re looking for then head to the Leadership section of our website to find out more.

If you have a particular interest in research then our section on how to #MakeSpace4Research will tell you everything you need to know.

Health and Care Professions Council

As Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) Dieticians are members of the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) and are required to meet the HCPC’s 5 CPD standards.

Updating your CPD profile

Keeping an up-to-date file of progress which documents your activities and achievements so that you have this to hand at any time should you be asked to provide it.

You can find out more about how to fill in a CPD profile and see lots of examples of CPD activities on the Health and Care Professions Council website.

Your profession may also have specific expectations – as a practicing Occupational Therapist you may find some of the following information helpful.

Royal College of Occupational Therapists (RCOT) support

The RCOT offers a wide range of support and activities to assist its members in upholding the highest standards of professional practice and to develop themselves continually throughout their working lives.

You can find a Career Development Framework on their website alongside an extensive range of learning resources and opportunities to support their continuing professional development.

There offer a number of products for use across all career levels and the CPD short courses, toolkit templates and other activities have been designed using adult learning principles including:

• Bite size learning
• Deep dive learning
• Learning in groups

There are also resources for learning and practice educators:

There is also an Events Section on the website where you may find a topic or specialist area of interest which would support your CPD.