Continuing professional development: Awareness, attitude, facilitators, and barriers among nurses in the Philippines

Abstract

Background & Aim: Mandatory Continuing Professional Development (CPD) remains to be an issue among nurses. The relatively new implementation of the CPD Act in the Philippines has led to varying perceptions and oppositions that warrant exploration. This study aimed to determine the awareness, attitude, facilitators, and barriers to CPD among hospital nurses in the Philippines.

Methods & Materials: This study employed a descriptive, cross-sectional survey design with 237 randomly selected nurses in tertiary hospitals in Iloilo City, Philippines. Self-administered instruments were used to gather self-report data. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, and Pearson’s r.

Results: Results indicated that nurses were moderately aware of the CPD law (M=2.31; SD=.31), were positive about the importance of CPD (M=3.91; SD=.72) but were ambivalent toward CPD implementation (M=5.98; SD=2.01). Attitude toward CPD importance significantly differed (p=.000) across age group. Awareness of CPD law (p=.000) and attitude toward the importance of CPD (p=.000) were significantly related to their attitude toward the implementation of CPD. Awareness that CPD is a requirement for license renewal (90.7%), knowledge that it can help improve skills at work (78.9%), and sponsorship from the organization (62%) were considered the major facilitators while cost (98.75%), not available to all staff (61.6%), and time-related factors (60.3%) were the major barriers to CPD participation.

Conclusion: Along with current efforts to strengthen CPD in the country, it is hoped that identification of knowledge gaps and addressing the barriers may lead to better understanding, acceptance, and participation of nurses to mandatory CPD.