Participating in forum discussions and reading content on www.vetsurgeon.org can count towards the average 35 hours of documented Continuing Professional Development you are required to undertake each year.

To count towards your CPD requirement, your activities on VetSurgeon must be part of a documented process of appraisal and development. In other words, you must keep a record of your activity and how it has contributed to your professional development.

COMING SOON: As of the 7th September 2015, we are developing a new feature on VetSurgeon.org that will allow you to record your CPD-qualifying activities on VetSurgeon.org in a couple of clicks of a mouse, store them in your profile, and then print out a certificate as needed.

There are two VetSurgeon.org activities which can count towards your annual CPD requirements:

Participating in forums
If you post a qualifying question on VetSurgeon.org and receive a reply, you may count the time spent posting your question and reading the answer as CPD. You should keep a note of what you learned.

If you post a reply to a question, and needed to research your answer, the time you spend researching and posting your answer also counts as CPD. So, if you are a specialist answering a question in your sleep, that doesn't count. But if the question made you think, and you need to check your facts, that does.

To count towards your CPD allowance, your forum posts must concern a subject which can reasonably be argued to advance your knowledge and proficiency as a veterinary surgeon (so RCVS-bashing posts won't qualify!)

Reading or viewing VetSurgeon content
Time spent reading or viewing any content which can reasonably be argued to advance your knowledge and proficiency as a vet, including forum discussion threads, news articles and videos on VetSurgeon.org counts towards your annual CPD requirement.

Further information about CPD requirements is available from the RCVS website: http://www.rcvs.org.uk/cpd