CPD countdown: Requirements checklist

You must complete a personal development plan (PDP) and upload it to your MyCPD account. We’ve created an easy-to-use digital template for members that includes various hints and tips to help guide your development and support you with this new process.

• You need 36 CPD points across the three-year cycle
• 18 of those points must be from interactive activities
• You must gain at least 6 points in any given year
• The points you get must be spread across all four domains

Read the full CPD requirements in the GOC CPD guide (pages 5-6)

Professionalism 

• Care and compassion
• Working collaboratively
• Respect and fairness for others
• Appropriate boundaries
• Reputation

Communication 

• Listening and responding appropriately
• Effective communication
• Valid consent
• Complaints

Clinical practice

• Clinical knowledge
• Diagnosis and treating
• Addressing the patient's needs

Leadership & accountability 

• Patient records
• Appropriate supervision
• Safe environment for patients

• All registrants update their CPD points / activities on their MyCPD account portal on the GOC’s website. 
• It is your responsibility to upload your activity. The site will keep you updated on your outstanding CPD requirements for the year / cycle via your private dashboard. 
• You can also provide feedback on CPD activities you have attended via the portal. 
• The portal allows you to upload documentation of mandatory reflective exercises, including your PDP and reflective notes. 

You have the option of completing a short-written reflection statement on MyCPD for any CPD activity that you undertake. You must complete these for peer review and self-directed CPD activities, but we would encourage you to complete them in relation to all CPD that you do as a matter of good practice. You can do this on your MyCPD account when you log a CPD activity. In completing reflection statements, you may find it useful to consider:

• what your expectations were about the activity
• what you learned; whether you will be applying  the learning to your practice (and why), and if so, how you will apply it. 

Your reflections should be anonymised and not contain any details that could identify patients or practitioners

Online peer review sessions are open to members and fulfil the GOC peer review requirement, offering three interactive CPD points. These one hour sessions start with an introduction led by a lead facilitator, followed by small virtual groups, each guided by an experienced facilitator, where members review two or three cases. We recommend that you book in for online peer reviews as early as possible as these sessions fill up quickly.

The GOC expects all registrants to undertake and document a reflective exercise at least once per cycle.  

The exercise is based on your Personal Development Plan and will involve a discussion with a peer or other registered healthcare professional. Your peer could be another optometrist or dispensing optometrists, your employer or another healthcare professional regulated by a professional body.