Pathway of Continuous Professional Development Among Physiotherapists: A Qualitative Study

Continuous professional development (cpd) has gained prominence in the last decade to meet improved self-development and health care services among health professionals. being practitioners serving clients in health care, therefore, necessitates the importance of the physiotherapist’s participation in activities of cpd. this paper aims to identify how physiotherapists view cpd, barriers to its progress and its impact on healthcare practice. this is a qualitative study with one-to-one interview sessions involving open-ended questions to facilitate free flow of idea that are rich with information. twentytwo physiotherapist (17 females and 5 males) participated. four main themes were generated following analysis: (i) comprehension of what is cpd (ii) outcome of cpd (iii) barriers to undertaking cpd and (iv) strategies to improve participation in cpd. further sub-themes were generated from the themes suggestive of physiotherapists’ awareness and concerns related to cpd activities and problems encountered when embarking on cpd participation. in conclusion, physiotherapists should recognise the importance of participation in cpd activities either for self-development or to provide effective health care services. the main barrier to cpd activities that was identified was a support system that facilitates enhancement in such activities. this has major implication such as mandatory participation in cpd among staff and for managers to ensure that an effective mechanism is in place such as funding, schedule events andmoral support.