Continuing professional development in Eswatini: Factors affecting medical practitioners' participation.

Rodney H Magwenya,Andrew J Ross

doi:10.4102/safp.v63i1.5395

Abstract

BackgroundThe availability of continuing professional development (CPD) activities does not necessarily translate into good participation by health practitioners. Reasons for low participation include time constraints, cost of some activities, irrelevant material and lack of access. This study aimed to explore the views of medical practitioners’ working in Eswatini regarding the factors that affect their participation in CPD programmes.MethodsA qualitative study using seven in-depth semi-structured interviews and three focus group discussions (FGDs) of medical officers working in the public heath sectors in Eswatini was conducted between November 2020 and February 2021. Open-ended questions were used to explore factors that both motivate and demotivate medical officers participation in CPD activities. The interviews and FGDs were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim, the qualitative data were analysed using the thematic approach.ResultsThe emerging motivating themes described by the participants were: (1) professional responsibility and (2) personal interest and learning need. Whilst the demotivating factors were: (1) non-relevance to clinical practice, (2) cost of participation, (3) lack of reward, and (4) no recognition for staying up-to-date.ConclusionThe motivating factors are associated with deep learning and linked well with the principles of adult learning. The demotivating factors found were in keeping with findings from other studies in a variety of countries. It is important for the Medical Council and CPD organisers to be aware of the different motivations and de-motivations for practitioners to engage in CPD to enable them to plan and implement their programmes effectively.

Highlights

Continuing professional development (CPD) is the purposeful updating and improving of professional knowledge and competence that is generally undertaken throughout an individual’s working life.[1]
The most common acknowledgement was that attending CPD activities was part of their professional responsibility to engage in various forms of acquiring new knowledge and skills, this being regarded as an important motivation for the participants: ‘It goes without saying that CPD is a fundamental activity for all practitioners; the question may be how to go about it though.’ (Female, general practitioners (GPs), 57 years old)
The first was the ‘aware participants’, who felt an obligation to engage in CPD because of where they practised before coming to Eswatini, whilst recognising that there was no formal enforcement of CPD points in the country: ‘Where I used to practice, they required us to accumulate a certain number of points for us to be able to renew our licences; luckily, here it’s not yet like that

Summary

Introduction

Continuing professional development (CPD) is the purposeful updating and improving of professional knowledge and competence that is generally undertaken throughout an individual’s working life.[1]. There are five broad categories of motivations as to why medical practitioners participate in CPD activities.[6,7,8,9,10,11] These include: (1) the expectation to be knowledgeable and up-to-date, (2) a topic of interest, (3) to improve behaviour or skills learned, (4) to learn more about a specific condition, and (5) the need for social contact with other practitioners and to escape from the daily work routines.[6,7,8,9,10,11] Irrespective of the motivating factor, for learning to be effective it must be based on sound educational principles. The availability of continuing professional development (CPD) activities does not necessarily translate into good participation by health practitioners. This study aimed to explore the views of medical practitioners’ working in Eswatini regarding the factors that affect their participation in CPD programmes

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion