Keeping Up to Date: Continuing Professional Development for Health Workers in Developing Countries

September 2012

Kamlesh Giri, Nina Frankel, Kate Tulenko, Amanda Puckett, Rebecca Bailey, and Heather Ross, IntraHealth International

Health professional training in MaliIn order for health workers to provide quality care and meet their communities’ changing health care needs, they must become lifelong learners dedicated to updating their professional knowledge, skills, values, and practice. Continuing professional development (CPD) encompasses all of the activities that health workers undertake—both formal and informal—to maintain, update, develop, and enhance their professional skills, knowledge, and attitudes.

CPD is a systematic and ongoing process of education, in-service training, learning, and support activities that build on initial education and training to ensure continuing competence, extend knowledge and skills to new responsibilities or changing roles, and increase personal and professional effectiveness.

This technical brief summarizes the literature concerning current best practices and innovative ideas in CPD. It is targeted toward people who run or advise CPD programs.

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