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Aligning continuing professional development (CPD) with quality assurance (QA): a perspective of healthcare leadership

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Abstract

Ensuring patient health and safety is one of the main goals of continuing professional development (CPD) and quality assurance (QA) departments. Many models of integration have been developed as an effort to maximise outcomes and connect both departments through this common goal of patient safety and quality of patient care. Yet little research has been conducted on the integration of both departments in different healthcare settings. This study explored the perspectives of leaders (N = 12) in healthcare settings regarding the current state of collaboration and gaps between CPD and QA. In this descriptive study, data was collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews guided by directive prompts. Questions were selected to identify healthcare leaders’ perspectives on the relationship between CPD and QA in their settings. All recorded interviews were transcribed verbatim. An inductive analytical approach was applied for thematic analysis of transcripts. The results demonstrated the participants’ understanding of collaboration processes between CPD and QA. Currently, the only shared goal reported was that CPD teams should provide logistical support to QA teams. Several other factors of collaboration were lacking, reinforcing the need for more efforts to integrate both departments. This study identified a lack of integration between CPD and QA departments but provided evidence of the existence of a basic level of collaboration in the healthcare setting. In addition, this study demonstrated the practical application of D’Amour’s collaboration model. Further exploration to generalise the results in other healthcare settings is required.

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Data cannot be shared for ethical/privacy reasons. The data will be shared on reasonable request to the corresponding author.

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Acknowledgements

All the participants for their time and support

Funding

No funding was taken from any source.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department, of Medical Education, College of Medicine, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

    Sajida Agha

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  1. Sajida Agha
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Correspondence to Sajida Agha.

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No known conflict of interests.

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Ethical approval was taken from Institutional review board with code# RIBC469/16.

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Appendix: Semi-structured interview guide

Appendix: Semi-structured interview guide

1.1 Interview script

Thank you for taking the time to talk to me today about your experience as a leader in QA/CPD. Before we start the interview, I want to first tell you a little bit about myself and the purpose of today’s conversation. Please sign the informed consent form.

The following interview guide will be used to study boundaries and integrations between quality, and CPD according to leaders in each domain.

1.1.1 Historical development

1.1.1.1 Prompts

  • Please describe your understanding of the historical development of your field in the organization?

1.1.2 Role development

1.1.2.1 Prompts

  • Can you describe how your role developed in your field?

  • Can you describe what previous training you had related to your field?

1.1.3 Definition of dominant field

1.1.3.1 Prompts

  • In your own words, can do you describe the definition of your field?

  • Can you describe the methods it uses?

  • Can you describe the outcomes it tries to achieve?

  • Can you describe the stakeholders it involves?

  • Can you describe its target population?

  • Can you describe its drivers?

  • Can you describe of interventions?

1.1.4 Current state of dominant field in the organization:

1.1.4.1 Prompts

  • What are the activities taking place in your domain within the organization?

  • What are the current limitations?

  • What are the current areas of strength?

  • What areas of development are being called for?

  • What are the facilitatory factors?

  • What challenges are being faced?

1.1.5 Relationship to other fields

1.1.5.1 Prompts

  • How do you describe the other fields?

  • What are their limitations?

  • How is your field related to the other field?

1.1.6 Integration with other fields

1.1.6.1 Prompts

  • What has been your experience in integrating your field with the other field?

  • What supportive factors?

  • What challenges are faced to an integrated approach?

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Agha, S. Aligning continuing professional development (CPD) with quality assurance (QA): a perspective of healthcare leadership. Qual Quant 56, 447–461 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-021-01138-2

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