title: Factors affecting the views and attitudes of Scottish pharmacists to continuing professional development.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To explore factors associated with Scottish pharmacists' views and attitudes to continuing professional development (CPD).
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective principal component analysis of 552 (22.8%) questionnaires returned from a sample of 2420 Scottish pharmacists randomly selected from the 4300 pharmacists registered with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain and with a Scottish address.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Principal component analysis of questionnaire items (n = 19) revealed four factors associated with Scottish pharmacists' views and attitudes to CPD: having positive support in the workplace, having access to resources and meeting learning needs, having confidence in the CPD process and motivation to participate in the CPD process. Community pharmacists were identified as the subgroup of pharmacists that needed most support for CPD regarding all four factors, while pharmacists working in primary care felt that they had most support in the workplace in comparison to other sectors (P < 0.05) and better access to resources and meeting learning needs when compared to community (P < 0.001) and hospital (P = 0.008) colleagues. Pharmacists working in primary care also felt more motivated to participate in the CPD process than those in the community (P < 0.001), and hospital pharmacists reported having more confidence in the CPD process compared to community pharmacists (P < 0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Using principal component analysis has identified four factors associated with Scottish pharmacists' views and attitudes to CPD. This may provide an approach to facilitate comparison of CPD views and attitudes with intra and inter professional groupings. Further study may allow identification of good practice and solutions to common CPD issues.
authors: NHS Education for Scotland, Glasgow, Scotland, UK. ailsa.power@nes.scot.nhs.uk
authors: Ailsa
authors: A
authors: Power
authors: Aikaterini
authors: A
authors: Grammatiki
authors: Ian
authors: I
authors: Bates
authors: Susan
authors: S
authors: Mc Kellar
authors: B Julienne
authors: BJ
authors: Johnson
authors: H Lesley
authors: HL
authors: Diack
authors: Derek
authors: D
authors: Stewart
authors: Steve A
authors: SA
authors: Hudson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D004513:Education, Pharmacy, Continuing; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D010593:Pharmaceutical Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010595:Pharmacists / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000523:psychology*; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012606:Scotland; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult