CPD (previously known as CPE – Continuing Professional Education) is about keeping yourself up to date in your chosen profession. Most professional associations require their members to complete a certain amount of CPD each year to ensure competency. This can take the form of activities such as seminars or ongoing formal study, or things like teaching, presenting and mentoring, as well as the purchase of books and journals etc.
The NHAA requires all full members to complete documented CPD annually. This includes practicing and non practicing members, fellows, life members, and retired members who wish to remain up-to-date.
CPD is also required as part of your application if you are joining us with qualifications more than 12 months old, and from rejoining members who have not given us CPD for more than 12 months.
Please see below for detailed information on the NHAA CPD system. If you have any questions please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , we're happy to help.
To complete your CPD, you will need:
For CPD returns covering the period to 31st December 2019:
For CPD returns covering the period from 1st January 2020:
Taking a break - Suspending Membership
Activities and Allocation of hours
At the end of each financial year members list their CPD activities and hours for that year on a CPD diary and send it in to the NHAA office. Suitable activities are listed in the CPD Guide along with clear instructions on filling out the CPD Diary.
The CPD system has been updated commencing 1st January 2020 and now features:
If you join within 12 months of graduating, you do not have to supply CPD for the rest of the membership year in which you join. CPD is collected on the financial year, so depending on when you completed your course you may get many or only a few months exemption. E.g. if completed in June, you get 12 months exemption from CPD, if you completed in Dec, you get only 6 months exemption from CPD.
For all others, as you will have given us CPD with your application, your next CPD diary will be for the remainder of the membership year in which you join, pro-rata at 2.5 hours per month (not including the month you join). E.g. if you join in December, you will be asked for 15 hours at the end of the financial year, if you join in March, you will be asked for only 7.5 hours at the end of the financial year.
Taking a break - Suspending Membership
Full members can suspend their membership for up to 12 months and not supply evidence of CPD for this period when rejoining. If you would like to suspend your membership, contact the office on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
During the introduction of the new CPD system in 2019-2020, please refer to the individual advice sent by the NHAA office. Thereafter:
CPD is due at the end of each membership (financial) year, for activities completed in the preceding 12 months. If you have the hours required earlier than that, then please do send in your CPD early - this is much appreciated! Your CPD must be received within 2 weeks after the end of the membership year and your annual membership / TGA certificate cannot be issued until it is received. Without CPD, your membership fees will be refunded, less 25% (administrative costs), and your membership cancelled or converted to Associate membership.
A total of 30 hours per year (minimum) is required.
Activities and Allocation of Hours
Most CPD activities and the hours they are worth are covered in the CPD Guide. However, below you will find some individual activities / courses that have been submitted for CPD and the hour values that have been allocated for them. If you have an activity that you think should be added, please contact the office on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Individual Activities
You should maintain evidence of your annual CPD for at least 12 months after submitting your CPD diary. While you are NOT required to submit the evidence with your CPD diary every year, we do a random audit of 5% of full members annually and ask them for evidence to support their most recent diary. For examples of acceptable evidence see the evidence panel in the Guide.
The Board of Directors of the NHAA reserves the right to audit full members at other times to determine if they are meeting the CPD requirements.
If you are unable to meet the CPD requirements for any reason you should notify the NHAA as soon as possible. We will attempt to assist you wherever possible and reasonable.
In the event that CPD requirements are unmet or if a member does not wish to meet the requirements, options include cancellation of full membership and/or the offer of Associate membership.
Logbooks
While some evidence is very straight forward to collect (attendance certificates, receipts etc), it can be difficult to find for activities that do not generate such easily saved paperwork. Eg; Peer group meetings; Mentoring / Supervision meetings; Research / Writing hours; Free journals / books / newsletters.
A logbook can be used as evidence for these activities - they are simple to keep and reflect an accurate record. We recommend that you set up a logbook at the beginning of each year – you can use one logbook for all activities that require it or have separate logbooks if you have an activity that you do a lot. You can use any book / notebook as your logbook, or print and use our logbook template below:
Download: Logbook template Please note: this logbook is only for keeping track of activites such as metoring sessions. This document CANNOT be used instead of the CPD Diary.
To assist you in obtaining the required minimum CPD hours we have designed a CPD system based on our professional journal – the Australian Journal of Herbal and Naturopathic Medicine (AJHNM).
This is not compulsory. You may choose to obtain your hours through other activities, however it does provide a relatively straight forward way of accumulating approximately 50% of the necessary hours.
How it works
At the back of each issue of the AJHNM you will find a questionnaire consisting of an average of 8 multiple choice questions. By reading that issue and completing the related questions you will obtain 4 hours Formal Learning CPD.
Completion of all 4 questionnaires for the year will allow you to obtain 16 hours Formal Learning CPD. Record the hours obtained for completing each questionnaire in your CPD diary. Please record the journal volume and issue number of each questionnaire completed.
NB: You do not need to send the completed questionnaires in with your CPD diary, however do keep them for 12 months in case of a CPD audit.