The University of Texas at Austin College of Pharmacy is proud to introduce the CPD Intensive: the nation’s first open-enrollment program designed under the new ACPE Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Provider framework. The Intensive is a high-impact, four-hour strategic session engineered for pharmacists who are ready to take full command of their professional trajectory.
A CPD Intensive is a tactical "deep dive" into the architecture of your practice. It is designed to move you from passive learning to active achievement through a structured, four-stage cycle:
Self-Appraisal & Reflection: Using expert-guided coaching, you will evaluate your past practice to identify critical gaps—both in clinical performance and personal leadership.
Strategic Goal Setting: You will translate those gaps into a vision for your future, defining exactly what you want to achieve in the next year of your career.
The SMART Roadmap: You won't leave with just a "plan," but with a set of SMART Objectives (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound) that serve as your personal blueprint for success.
Sustained Momentum: Professional growth doesn't end when the four-hour session concludes. Our Intensive includes a structured support system with asynchronous check-ins at 3, 6, and 9 months to track your progress, troubleshoot barriers, and ensure you reach your milestones.
As the first institution in the country to offer CPD as an open-enrollment program, UT Austin provides a unique "collaboration hub." Unlike internal employer-based training, our Intensives bring together pharmacists from diverse backgrounds and practice environments. This diversity allows for a rich exchange of ideas, peer-to-peer coaching, and a broader perspective on the challenges facing the profession today.
The CPD Intensive allows you to earn CPE credit while performing the actual work of professional advancement. Whether you are seeking to satisfy new BPS recertification requirements or simply aiming to elevate your practice to the "Burnt Orange" standard, the Intensive provides the tools, the community, and the accreditation to get you there.
Date: Apr 25, 2026 08:15 AM - 01:00 PM
Registration closes on Apr 25, 2026 09:00 AM
The ACPE defines Continuing Professional Development as a self-directed, ongoing systematic process of planning, participating in, and documenting learning. Unlike traditional CE (which is often reactive), CPD is proactive.
The cycle consists of five interconnected stages:
Reflect: Identify your learning needs based on your actual practice.
Plan: Create SMART objectives to meet those needs.
Learn: Engage in educational activities.
Evaluate: Assess if the learning actually improved your practice.
Record & Share: Document your progress for your portfolio and peers.
Reflection is the "engine" of the CPD cycle. It is the moment you stop "doing" and start "analyzing." Without reflection, learning is accidental; with reflection, learning is strategic. By looking at your past and your present, you identify the specific knowledge, skills, or attitudes you need to acquire to remain a "top of license" practitioner.
To help you navigate this first stage of the cycle, we have broken the Reflect phase into three distinct, manageable exercises:
The Focus: Documentation and History.
The Activity: Updating your CV/Resume and LinkedIn Profile.
The Purpose: Before looking forward, you must look back. This exercise is a celebration of your journey. It allows you to gather the evidence of your impact—the lives saved, the protocols managed, and the credentials earned—to build a factual foundation of your current professional standing.
The Focus: Mastery and Strengths.
The Activity: Categorizing your skills into professional domains and identifying your "Superpowers."
The Purpose: This is where you translate your history into value. By auditing your records, you see which areas of your practice are "robust" and which may have stagnated. It helps you recognize the unique assets you bring to the healthcare team, ensuring you aren't just busy, but impactful.
The Focus: Gaps and Aspiration.
The Activity: Identifying the "Delta"—the space between your current reality and your future goals.
The Purpose: This is the bridge to the Plan phase. By looking at your practice through three lenses (Clinical, Leadership, and Service), you identify exactly where you want to grow. Identifying a "Delta" is not a sign of weakness; it is the mark of an expert who has the vision to pursue the next level of excellence.
Through these three steps, you move from being a practitioner of the past to being the architect of your future.
Welcome to the live portion of the CPD Intensive. By completing your professional retrospective and identifying your "Deltas" online, you have already done the hardest part: you’ve looked honestly at where you are and where you want to go. Now, we begin the work of building the bridge between the two.
For the next four hours, we invite you to step away from the daily pressures of the pharmacy counter or the clinical floor. This is a rare space designed for exploration, creativity, and professional design. We encourage you to think outside the box. CPD is not a box-checking exercise; it is an iterative process of self-creation. As we dive into today’s lessons and interactive exercises:
Be Audacious: Don’t just aim for the goal that is "easy"—aim for the one that excites you.
Be Collaborative: Engage with your peers. Often, the best solution to a practice gap is found in the shared wisdom of this room.
Be Present: Use this time to truly "work on" your career, rather than just "working in" it.
Today’s journey culminates in a concrete output: the creation of your SMART objectives. While these objectives are just the beginning of your long-term professional goals, they represent the vital first strides toward closing your Deltas. You aren't just writing a plan; you are architecting the next phase of your legacy as a pharmacist.
You are part of an elite group of practitioners taking part in one of the first programs of this kind in the nation. You are already an amazing professional—today is simply about unlocking the "Next" version of your impact.
Dive in, engage deeply, and most importantly, enjoy the process of becoming.
Goal: To transform identified practice gaps into long-term professional aspirations. This is the "Dream" phase where participants articulate a vision for their career 2, 3, or even 5 years into the future.
Now that you have identified the gaps in your reflection, it is time to look forward. A practice gap is a whole; a Goal is the structure you build over it.
For the next 20 minutes, put aside the "how" and the "when." We are not worried about deadlines or logistics yet. Instead, look at your identified gaps and ask yourself: "If I successfully closed this gap, where would I be in three years?"
Your task is to articulate one high-level goal for each of our three pillars. These should be aspirational and "long-view", think of them as your North Star.
Now that you have architected your goals and set your initial SMART objectives, you are entering the most rewarding phase of the CPD Intensive: The Application. Over the next nine months, we have designed a rhythmic "check-in" structure to help you navigate your progress. While every professional path is unique, we suggest a general flow to help focus your energy:
Months 1–3 (The Learning Phase): Focus on acquiring new knowledge, attending workshops, or researching best practices.
Months 4–6 (The Application Phase): Begin integrating what you’ve learned into your daily clinical or leadership environment.
Months 7–9 (The Evaluation Phase): Step back to assess the impact of your changes on patient care, your team, or your own professional fulfillment.
In a clinical setting, we often look for precision and predictability. However, professional growth is rarely a straight line.
This is a journey, not a strict process. We want to be clear: It is okay if your path doesn't look like a textbook.
Life happens.
Clinical priorities shift.
Bumps in the road are not "failures"—they are simply data points that help you pivot.
If you find that a SMART objective you wrote three months ago no longer serves your current practice, change it. If you hit a challenge that slows you down, breathe. The "Delta" is not a gap you must sprint across; it is a space for you to explore, iterate, and evolve.
Don't wait until Month 9 to feel successful. We encourage you to find joy in the process itself.
Celebrate the first time you apply a new skill, even if it feels clunky.
Take pride in the check-ins, even if your update is "I’m still working on this."
Stay Curious: Dive into the lessons and see where they lead you. You are one of the most highly regarded professionals in the world, and the fact that you are dedicated to this level of growth is a testament to your character.
We will be with you every three months to check in and see how you’re doing. These aren't "tests"; they are milestones to help you pause and acknowledge how far you’ve come.
Enjoy the ride, dive into the challenges, and be proud of every step forward you take.