Engagement with continuing professional development: development of a service model.
An increasing number of extended-scope practitioner roles for nurses and allied health professionals can be found within the national health services in the UK. There has been little specific research into the facilitators and barriers for engagement with continuing professional development (CPD) of this group of health care professionals. This paper presents a review of the issues surrounding participation in, and influencing factors of, continuing professional development for nurses and allied health professionals. These findings are summarised in a conceptual model relevant to service planning and delivery for health care professionals and their managers.


METHODS
Literature databases were searched using the key term "continu* professional development," "clinical competence," and "professional competence" for relevant papers published in English from 2006 to 2010.


RESULTS
From over 900 papers that were identified, 133 were selected and are presented in a narrative synthesis describing the supra-organisational, organisational, and personal factors identified in the literature and how the support of managers and colleagues is critical.


CONCLUSIONS
A model that illustrates the multi-faceted nature of CPD is constructed from the review's findings, which could assist clinicians at all levels of seniority and their managers in optimising CPD in their workplaces and when seeking to identify and address hindrances to CPD.
Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Southampton, Highfield, Hants, UK.
Hannah
H
Haywood
Helen
H
Pain
Sarah
S
Ryan
Jo
J
Adams
D000488:Allied Health Personnel / Q000193:education*; D004496:Education, Continuing; D004502:Education, Medical, Continuing; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009740:Nursing Staff / Q000193:education*