College regulation states that in each registration year, a self-regulating professional needs to complete the Continuing Competence Program (CCP). The CCP requires that a regulated member complete, in each registration year, a reflective practice review that consists of a self-assessment, a learning plan, and a minimum of 24 hours of learning activities with details of how the learning was useful to the professional. The CCP is founded on the assumption that regulated members acquire appropriate skills and knowledge to practice the profession through their educational programs, then maintain these competencies through lifelong learning and adherence to the Standards of Practice as self-regulated professionals.

The legislation also establishes the Competence Committee consisting of regulated members of the profession and charges it with the responsibility to:

• Monitor the components of the Continuing Competence Program (CCP) by reviewing the program every five years in order to accurately reflect current needs and to enhance the provision of professional services
• Monitor individual registered members’ compliance with the continuing competence requirements (CCP audit)

The CCP was reviewed in 2014, and this year’s scheduled review was kicked off by presentations from our colleagues in Ontario and Alberta – the College of Medical Radiation Technologists of Ontario (CMRTO) and the Alberta College of Combined Laboratory and X-Ray Technologists (ACCLXT), respectively – about the purpose and goal of continuing competence programs. Throughout our careers, we are expected to maintain the initial competencies learned at our post-secondary institutions and improve them through lifelong learning. All healthcare competence programs are based on adult learning; this means that individuals are best able to identify what their professional development needs are, as well as what their preferred learning style is. Representatives from both organizations stressed that their competence programs were fair to all members and not meant to be punitive.

Providing feedback to audited members is very important to the Committee. As they go through the audit, the Committee wants to share areas where members can improve their CCP for future learning years. One of the ways to achieve this is by adding a feedback form directly in the MyCCP portal. This allows the Committee to share what is required for your CCP submission to be successful, such as identifying all indicators in your self-assessment, identifying two learning objectives and how one was met with a learning activity, and including all necessary information in your CCP activity records (such as date, title, presenter, learning content and how the learning was useful to the member’s practice). The form summarizes total hours and allows the Committee to enter additional comments regarding the submission. This form is only shared with members to whom the Committee wants to provide feedback.

The Competence Committee also reviewed and updated the CCP policies and terms of reference. A new Competence Committee Manual was approved that holds updated and new policies such as Requests for Extension or Exemption, Member Status for Audits and more. Members can be assured of consistency, fairness and transparency throughout our CCP processes.

Moving forward to 2020, the College strives to revitalize the language on the CCP section of the ACMDTT website and the MyCCP portal to be more user friendly. We will also look at providing education through webinars to the membership about aspects of the Continuing Competence Program.

The Continuing Competence Guide has been updated for 2019-2020 and is available on our website and on the MyCCP portal.