The effectiveness of continuing professional development of radiographers in St. Luke's Hospital.

Abstract

"During the past 10 years the term CPD (Continuing Professional Development) has become the 'buzz expression' within the public healthcare sector. The concept itself has however, become of strategic importance within the developed nations of the world ... " (Moores, 2002, p. 259) CPD is generally considered as a necessity for both professional and personal development of any individual in any professional field. The courses which started to be offered by the Institute of Health Care (IHC) since 2006, helped to familiarise this educational scheme with the Maltese radiographers. This motivated the researcher to evaluate the degree of effectiveness perceived by these radiographers through CPD, by distributing a questionnaire to the population of radiographers working at St. Luke's Hospital. The study revealed a positive perception with regards to CPD; the radiographers appeared to have high expectations of what such an instructive approach could offer and were very eager to offer suggestions on how the present situation could be ameliorated so that CPD could be exploited further. However, a major part of the respondents did not appear to be fully committed to this educational approach. The participants' responses were not significantly correlated to their corresponding demographic data. It was ultimately concluded that the radiographers working in St. Luke's Hospital are aware of the benefits of CPD, but it is necessary that the management motivates them further to become more responsible for their own professional development. The researcher recommended that the suggestions offered by the participants should be considered as a means to enhance CPD effectiveness and that further studies should be carried out to explore more deeply, issues which were only superficially investigated in this study.