Towards National Needs Assessment – Perceived CPD Needs of Qatar Healthcare Practitioners

Abstract

Background: Adequate educational planning (including proper needs assessment) is considered an essential prerequisite to assure quality of Continuing Medical Education (CME) / Continuing Professional Development (CPD) activities. It is, therefore, one of the core standards of accreditation systems, including Qatar's National accreditation system. In March 7 2016, Qatar Council for Healthcare Practitioner – Accreditation Department (QCHP-AD) launched Qatar's National CME / CPD Accreditation system and framework. Since that date, all licensed healthcare practitioners (Physicians, Nurses, Pharmacists, Dentists, Allied Health Professionals and Complementary Medicine Practitioners) working in the state of Qatar are mandated to participate in CPD activities and fulfill CPD credit requirements to be able to renew their license of practice. Fifty percent of such CPD requirements are mandated to be collected from participation in accredited group learning activities. A comprehensive National Needs assessment, therefore, would be of great importance to provide quality CME / CPD to healthcare practitioners in Qatar, improve their competence and performance and achieve Qatar's Health strategy and National Vision 2030. And though a comprehensive National CPD needs assessment is not yet conducted, several efforts towards assessing the CPD needs of different healthcare professions in Qatar were initiated. One of them, targeting dentist and dental allied health practitioners, will be presented in this research work. Methodology: A questionnaire for assessing the perceived CPD needs of dentists and dental allied health professionals was developed and electronically distributed among target healthcare practitioners. The responses were collected, analyzed by statistical package software and presented in this research. Results: The results of distributed questionnaire showed national CPD needs perceived by dental and allied health professionals in terms of common gaps in practice and convenient CPD formats. Discussion: Dental health professionals in Qatar have some common gaps in knowledge, competence and skills that can be addressed to ensure proper professional development and of such healthcare practitioners and hence improve quality of care and patient outcomes. Interprofessional and education can play important role to satisfy the CPD needs of dental health professionals and promote the concepts of team-based education and hence high quality team-based healthcare. Online and blended CPD formats are convenient formats for provision of CPD activities for dental health professionals in Qatar across all categories recognized by Qatar National CPD Framework. The conducted needs assessment shall be fostered by unperceived needs assessment tools to ensure proper identification of the actual CPD needs of Dental health professionals in Qatar. The conducted needs assessment can present a step towards national CPD needs assessment and can be mocked (considering discussed enhancements) to plan for national CPD needs assessment of other healthcare practitioners in the state of Qatar. Conclusions: Qatar's dentists and dental allied health professionals perceive some common gaps in practice that should be considered in planning for CPD activities targeting such professionals. The conducted needs assessment represents a step that should be built-upon to have a national CPD needs assessment for all healthcare professions in the state of Qatar.