Allied Health Professions Act, 1982 (Act No. 63 of 1982)

Board Notices

Guidelines for Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for the professions of Acupuncture, Aromatherapy, Ayurveda, Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture, Chiropractic, Homeopathy, Naturopathy, Osteopathy, Phytotherapy, Reflexology, Therapeutic Aromatherapy, Therapeutic Massage Therapy, Therapeutic Reflexology and Unani-Tibb

1. Introduction
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1.1. Graduation as a healthcare professional and registration as a practitioner does not guarantee that an individual’s professional proficiency will be maintained for the rest of his/her professional life. There are two primary reasons for this:

Firstly, the acquisition of new knowledge and skills for any health-related field is expanding constantly and this new knowledge is not always easily accessible by practitioners; and secondly, certain education and training acquired by students in healthcare professions may subsequently become out-dated after graduation.

 

1.2. The purpose of the CPD programme is to ensure that any practitioner who is registered with the AHPCSA maintains current, but also acquires new and updated levels of knowledge, skills and ethical performance that will be of measurable benefit in professional practice and enhance and promote professional integrity. The beneficiary will ultimately be the patient. All such practitioners are required to complete a programme of approved continuing professional development activities in each calendar year.

 

1.3. The activities are clustered together comprising a hierarchy of learning approaches and strategies. Practitioners shall select activities from the hierarchy to meet their particular needs or the specific demands of their practice environments. It is anticipated that the system will also address the specific South African healthcare environment by providing a range of activities that will allow the practitioners to meet the challenges faced in the current healthcare system.

 

1.4. The hierarchy of activities detailed includes traditional learning experiences such as, but not limited to, attendance at conference presentations, workshops, structured courses and quality assurance audits of practices or groups of professionals in their work environments.

 

[Guideline 1 substituted by Board Notice 170, GG45536, dated 26 November 2021]