Continuing Professional Development In Health Sector

Programs of continuing education (CE) for health personnel represent crucial challenges for the development of health systems, which are relevant and efficient. Continuing  professional development (CPO) is a more complete definition, including medical, managerial, social and personal skills, leading to improvement of the health status and quality of life of the people. Review of the literature based on evidence gives clear guidance for CPO internationally. During the last two decades, the need for all health personnel to have highly developed   learning   skills   in   a   society racing with change is evident. th'e health personnel  are  forced   to  continue  their learning beyond graduation. Improvement in   CE  systems has  resulted  in   the formation   of CPO   in   many  developed countries. A few of  the  developing  countries implement these programs on a systematic basis, but  a national program for continuing education is lacking in nearly all  of  them.  In  some  of  the  countries scientific associations run CE programs; in many, CE programs are available for only a limited number of medical specialties and in other, on-the-job training is available for health personnel on an ad-hoc basis.The crucial   knowledge   gaps   between current  HR  practice  and  the   evidence based CE include:Based on  the  available  evidence it is recommended  to start a standardized information  gathering system for CPO and CE   activities in  all the  countries of  the world  and to  publish  the results annually (with  the  same  format  as used in vaccination  coverage reports). Holding regional workshops  and  seminars  on the significance  of  CPO for   health policy­ makers and administrators of different countries  can  result in widespread application of  CPO activities all  over the world.  Research studies, which have been performed on the efficacy of CE, should be extended  on a wider scope and the results should  be used in devising principles of an effective  CPO   programs. Application of novel  methods  of teaching  and active learning techniques  is recommended. Globalization  of  CPO can be facilitated through  adoption of CE models from countries,  which have  been successful in the  implementation of any  of  the ten principles of an active CE system.