Exploring General Practitioners’ Motivation for Participating in Continuous Professional Development: A Malaysian Case Study

Abstract

Continuous professional development (CPD) activities are life-long learning engagements for medical practitioners. CPD activities can enhance the medical competencies of medical practitioners, hence upholding the safety, and quality of healthcare services to be delivered to patients. In 2017, the Malaysia Medical Council has announced the mandatory CPD point collection system, which becomes a compulsive requirement for medical practitioners in renewing their annual practising certificate. Literature reports that motivation drives learning among medical practitioners, but there are limited studies since CPD activities are made mandatory for Malaysian general practitioners. The present study explored motivation for participating in continuous professional development activities among general practitioners in Kuala Lumpur. A case study design was used, and the case consisted of three private general practitioners. Semi-structured interviews were conducted. The data were analysed to generate themes and codes. Four themes were reported: freedom of choice (choosing preferred learning style, flexible timing ease learning, need-driven learning), connection of knowledge (relevance of new knowledge, socialising and networking, internalised value drives learning), improvement in ompetence (seek continuous improvement in competency, problem-solving at the workplace), and perception of mandatory CPD point collection system (positive reinforcement, external motivation, measurement of competence indicators). Although the motivation to participate in CPD activities is positive, future studies could consider researching into a meaningful measurement of CPD activities to overcome current concerns on using attendance as the only measurement.