A realist synthesis of effective continuing professional development (CPD): A case study of healthcare practitioners' CPD

Manley, Kim, Martin, Anne, Jackson, Carolyn and Wright, Toni (2018) A realist synthesis of effective continuing professional development (CPD): A case study of healthcare practitioners' CPD. Nurse Education Today, 69. pp. 134-141. ISSN 0260-6917

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Abstract

Background: Continuing professional development (CPD) in healthcare is fundamental for making sure frontline sta practice safely and e ectively. This requires practitioners to update knowledge and skills regularly to match the changing complexity of healthcare needs. The drive towards using limited resources e ectively for service improvements and the need for a exible workforce necessitate a review of ad hoc approaches to CPD. Objective: To develop strategies for achieving e ective CPD in healthcare. Design: A case study design drawing on principles of realist synthesis was used during two phases of the study to identify and test what works and in what circumstances. Setting: One National Health Service Trust in South East England. Participants: CPD stakeholders including professional regulatory bodies (n = 8), commissioners of healthcare (n = 15), facilitators of clinical skills development (n = 34), NHS sta in clinical leadership positions (n = 38), NHS sta undertaking skills development post graduate programs (n = 31), service user advocates (n = 8) and an international expert reference group (ERG) (n = 10). Methods: Data sources included a review of scholarly and grey literature, an online survey and a consensus workshop. Thematic and content analyses were used during data processing. Results: The ndings present four interdependent transformation theories comprising transforming individual practice, skills for the changing healthcare contexts, knowledge translation and workplace cultures to optimize learning, development and healthcare performance. Conclusions: The transformation theories contextualize CPD drivers and identify conditions conducive for ef- fective CPD. Practitioner driven CPD in healthcare is e ective within supportive organizations, facilitated workplace learning and e ective workplace cultures. Organizations and teams with shared values and purpose enable active generation of knowledge from practice and the use of di erent types of knowledge for service improvements.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	continuing professional development,realist synthesis,case study,education,transformation theories,workplace learning,health professions(all),nursing(all),medicine(all),sdg 4 - quality education ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3600
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > School of Health Sciences
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Norwich Epidemiology Centre Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Norwich Epidemiology Centre
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	01 Nov 2024 16:30
Last Modified:	22 Oct 2025 18:32
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/97438
DOI:	10.1016/j.nedt.2018.07.010

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