Background: Continuing professional development (CPD) is a primary strategy for nurses to keep abreast with the rapid changes in the health care practices of current times. Evidence has shown that nurses lack the initiative to take up the additional CPD offered by their organisation and have to be persuaded to do so once they have achieved the minimum 25 points of CPD mandated by Malaysia Professional Regulatory Board of Nursing (MNB).
Objective: To determine the extent to which nurses from a private hospital in Melaka will participate in CPD and the challenges affecting them from participating in CPD
upon achieving the mandatory CPD points specified by MNB.
Methods: This is a cross-sectional descriptive survey. A sample of 188 registered nurses (RNs) from a private hospital in Melaka was recruited via purposive sampling technique to complete a self-reporting questionnaire. The instrument which was adapted and used with permission was pilot-tested for reliability and validated by content experts to ensure its suitability for this local study.
Results: The survey showed that 82.4% of the registered nurses (RNs) had attained additional CPD points apart from the minimum 25 CPD points stipulated by MNB. The findings on RNs reading journals or engaged in distance learning programmes were not encouraging as the percentages were only 31.4% and the latter, 9%. In-service talks, grand round discussions and online sources of continual nursing education that do not require the RNs to be away from their work duties were the most frequent type of CPD activities participated by the RNs as compared to conferences, workshops, distance learning programmes or post basic courses. The top 3 challenges that affect RNs’ participation in CPD were time constraint (90.4%), work commitments (85.6%) and difficulty in getting nominated (53.7%) to attend the CPD activities of their choice.
Conclusions: The results of this study highlighted the respondents’ views to the management on the importance to align the approach of sponsoring CPD courses according to the nurses’ needs in order to meet their context of practice. The management also ought to take into consideration the identified challenges encountered by the nurses to participate in CPD upon achieving their mandatory CPD points specified by MNB.