Roger Ladouceur (Collège des médecins du Québec); François Goulet (Collège des médecins du Québec); Johanne Thiffault (Collège des médecins du Québec)

Purpose

In 2007, the Collège des médecins du Québec adopted the Continuing professional development plan (CPD) as a tool to maintain professional competency. Despite the fact that most physicians agree on the obligation to keep their knowledge up to date and to apply state-of-the-art medical techniques, treatments and procedures, some of them have a negative opinion about the CPD plan.

Methods

To better understand the perceptions of Quebec physicians, a qualitative research was carried out in the summer of 2010, using a series of semi-structured interviews conducted with 27 physicians recruited through a combination various sampling methods including purposeful, snowball and opportunistic sampling. The resulting sample provided a wide diversity of opinions and allowed us to achieve a high level of empirical data saturation.

Results

Although some irritants were mentioned, like having to maintain a CPD portfolio of activities, a task considered tedious and cumbersome by some participants, the majority of participants agreed that the CPD plan reflects the efforts made by a physician to keep up to date with medical advances.

Conclusion

Although a majority of the physicians interviewed agree with the idea of having a CPD plan, comments and suggestions mentioned by some participants should help the Collège des médecins du Québec improve its plan.