How to Create a CPD Plan as a Pharmacist (The Practical Guide)

If you know you need to do CPD but you have never thought too hard about the planning step, you are not alone. Most pharmacists focus on accumulating credits and logging activities. The plan often becomes an afterthought, or gets skipped entirely.

That is a risk worth understanding. CPD planning has been a mandatory requirement for pharmacists in Australia since December 2015, not a best practice suggestion. If you are ever selected for an AHPRA audit, your plan is one of the first things you will need to produce.

This guide walks you through what a CPD plan actually needs to contain and how to build one that reflects your practice.

Why you need a CPD plan (and what happens if you don't have one)

Planning is a legal requirement, not a best practice

The Pharmacy Board of Australia's Registration Standard: Continuing Professional Development (1 December 2015) sets planning as Requirement 1. Every pharmacist with general registration must plan their CPD annually, based on their scope of practice.

There is no opt-out. The requirement applies whether you work full-time in community pharmacy, part-time in a hospital, or split your time across clinical and management roles.

One point that surprises many pharmacists: completing your 40 CPD credits does not make you compliant if you have no documented plan. The planning obligation is separate from the logging obligation. Both matter.

What AHPRA looks for if you're audited

AHPRA audits are random. You will not receive advance notice. When selected, you will be asked to provide your CPD plan alongside your activity records and reflections.

A plan that was written in a rush after the audit notice arrived is not the same as a plan that was developed at the start of the year and updated as your practice evolved. The difference tends to be obvious in how well the plan connects to your actual scope and activities.

Your plan does not need to be elaborate. But it needs to exist, and it needs to connect your learning intentions to your scope of practice.

What a pharmacist CPD plan actually needs to contain

The Pharmacy Board does not mandate a specific template. You can use PSA's MyCPD tool, the Board's own template, SHPA's planner, or a format you create yourself. What matters is the substance, not the form.

A compliant plan works through four steps.

Step 1: Define your scope of practice

Your scope of practice is the starting point for everything else. Write down what you actually do in your role. This includes clinical responsibilities, patient counselling, dispensing, medicines management, any education or supervision you provide, research activities, or leadership and management work.

Scope is broader than many pharmacists assume. If you precept students, that is part of your scope. If you sit on a hospital committee, that is part of your scope. All of it is relevant to your planning.

Step 2: Review the competency standards

The National Competency Standards Framework for Pharmacists in Australia is the Board's recommended tool for identifying where your learning should focus. The Board recommends reviewing it to identify competencies relevant to your scope of practice, but using this specific framework is not a regulatory requirement.

The Framework is organised into domains covering areas such as professional practice, communication, medicines management, and more. Two of these domains are described by the Board as universal: Domain 1 (Professional and ethical practice) and Domain 2 (Communication, collaboration and self-management). The Pharmacy Board's Guidelines on CPD remind pharmacists of their obligation to maintain competency in these two domains regardless of scope.

Step 3: Identify your learning gaps

This is the reflective step. Look at your scope, look at the relevant competency domains, and ask honestly: where am I less confident? What has changed in my practice area? What do I wish I understood better?

Learning gaps can come from many sources: a medication query you could not answer confidently, a new clinical guideline that affects your patients, a management challenge you have not encountered before, or feedback from a colleague or supervisor.

Step 4: Choose activities to address those gaps

Once you have identified your gaps, identify what activities you intend to complete to address them. These do not need to be fully specified at the start of the year. You might know you want to do something in medication safety but not yet know which webinar or workshop you will choose.

The plan sets the intention. The record documents what actually happened.

Do you need to use a specific template?

No. The Pharmacy Board recommends the National Competency Standards Framework as a planning tool, but does not require you to use it or any particular template.

The PSA's MyCPD platform, SHPA's tools, and the Board's own template are all acceptable formats. If you want to maintain your plan in a spreadsheet or a document you have built yourself, that is also fine.

The question is not what format you use. The question is whether your plan shows that you have thought about your scope, identified where your learning should go, and connected your intended activities to those needs.

How detailed does your plan need to be?

It does not need to be long. A plan that clearly identifies your scope, notes two or three learning priorities for the year, and links those priorities to intended activities is doing its job.

What it cannot be is generic. A plan that says "I will complete 40 credits of CPD in various areas" is not a plan. It is a credit target with no connection to your practice.

Keeping your plan up to date throughout the year

Your CPD plan is a living document. The Pharmacy Board's FAQ from the CPD Journey Webinar (September 2016) makes this explicit: plans should be reviewed and updated as your scope changes or new learning needs emerge.

In practice, this means revisiting your plan when something significant shifts. A new role, a change in patient population, a new clinical guideline in your area, or a gap you discovered during a difficult case are all valid reasons to update your plan.

What if you're changing roles or returning to practice?

If you have been absent from practice for between one and three years, the Pharmacy Board's Guidelines on CPD require you to complete a minimum of one year's CPD requirements relevant to your intended scope before recommencing practice.

If you are changing roles within pharmacy, for example moving from community to hospital practice, your plan should reflect the new scope you are moving into. This is one of the most practical uses of the planning step.

CPD plan vs CPD record: what's the difference?

These are two separate documents with different purposes, and it is worth being clear on both.

Your CPD plan is forward-looking. It describes your scope, your learning priorities, and your intentions for the year. It is written at the start of the CPD year and updated as things change.

Your CPD record is backward-looking. It documents the activities you have actually completed, including the group and credits for each, your reflections on what each activity meant for your practice, and any evidence you have collected.

Both are required for a complete audit submission. A strong record with no plan leaves a gap. A detailed plan with no record of activities leaves a different gap. The two documents work together.

Building a plan that actually works for you

A CPD plan is not bureaucracy. It is the document that connects your everyday work to intentional learning and your learning to your registration obligations. Done well, it makes CPD feel purposeful rather than arbitrary. Done poorly, or skipped entirely, it is the most common gap in an AHPRA audit submission.

The good news is that it does not need to take long to build. Start with your scope, identify two or three genuine learning priorities, and note how you intend to address them. Review it at the start of each CPD year and update it when your practice changes.