All registered health professionals in Australia are, under the National Law, required to undertake Continuing Professional Development (Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency, 2015). Continuing Professional Development or CPD is the way through which professionals keep, enhance, and expand their knowledge and skills required of them throughout their professional careers (Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, 2015). These learning activities would help make sure that a professional’s competence is supported and updated and would at the same time help progress his or her career (Continuing Professional Development, 2012; Katsikitis, et al., 2013). CPD also involves development of personal qualities of professionals that are as important in their line of jobs (Continuing Professional Development, 2012).
Because technology and research continually advance, especially in the medical field, the regular undertaking of CPD by nurses helps
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One scenario in the activities portrayed an elderly woman, diagnosed with COPD, presenting herself to the emergency department. The nurse noticed that the patient frequents the ED for some time now and she generally shows up complaining of difficulty in breathing. As she assessed the patient and reviewed her medical history she was able to prove that the patient was presenting symptoms of anxiety or panic attacks, and not symptoms of COPD. It is known that recognition of mental health problems in the chronically ill is difficult hence it is crucial that it be treated or managed as soon as possible once detected (Holmes & Scullion, 2015). Having achieved the CPD activities for grief, depression, and anxiety disorder, which commonly co-occur with chronic diseases in individuals, made me mindful not to misjudge signs that patients