Manager's views on continuing professional development of qualified staff

Abstract

This study sought to explore manager's views on continuing professional development of qualified staff in the local governmental health care settings. A descriptive non-experimental design, incorporating a qualitative approach was adopted. The study involved a convenience sample of 13 participants. Data was collected by means of tape recorded semi-structured interviews. The interviews were than transcribed and analyzed by utilizing thematic analysis. Four themes emerged: 'relevance of continuing education'; 'personal and professional development'; 'enhancing standards' and 'towards mandatory professional development'. Findings indicate that managers valued the influence of continuing educational programs in the up-dating of knowledge and the development of personal qualities of qualified staff, which can further be applied to the delivery of higher standards of care. They recalled that the present working environment does not permit qualified staff to implement what they have learned from continuing educational programs. Managers in the study expressed the difficulty to release staff during their working hours to pursue continuing educational programs, especially in the general hospital. Participants identified that better working conditions will assist qualified staff to keep up with standards of care and not restrict them to implementing change. Some of the proposed recommendations put forward following completion of this research study are aimed at managers, educators and qualified staff. Taking in consideration the fact that this was the researcher's first research project, the sample size and sampling technique adopted suffer from a number of limitations. The fact that qualitative data was utilized gives the study strength, as it helped in exploring this field of the study in depth. It is suggested that further studies are undertaken before any conclusions can be drawn, in order to explore in more in depth the aspects identified in this research study.