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.
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.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 134-141 |
| Journal | Nurse Education Today |
| Volume | 69 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Oct 2018 |
Keywords
- continuing professional development
- realist synthesis
- case study
- education
- transformation theories
- Workplace learning
