Dietetics Professionals have a Positive Perception of Professional Development
Introduction
The Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR) implemented the Professional Development Portfolio in June 2001. This Portfolio process was created to promote lifelong learning and provide tools to guide professional development (1). The major steps of the process are: Reflect on Practice; Conduct a Learning Needs Assessment; Develop a Learning Plan and Submit the Learning Plan to CDR; Implement the Learning Plan Through Continuing Professional Education (CPE) with the Eventual Submission of the CPE Log to CDR; and Evaluate the Learning Plan Outcomes (1).
A pilot test of the Portfolio was conducted to learn how well the proposed process worked. One objective of the pilot study was to determine dietetics professionals’ perceptions of the Portfolio process and attitude towards professional development, and to determine if their perceptions changed over the course of the study. Another objective was to determine if the Portfolio guide increased the ability to understand the Portfolio process. Hagus (2) found that the majority of health care professionals supported the need for CPE, but little research could be found about dietetics professionals’ attitude towards professional development. This information will be helpful to providers of CPE activities as they plan programs to meet the learning needs of dietetics practitioners.
Section snippets
Methods
The design of the Portfolio national pilot study and the description of the subjects were presented by Keim and colleagues (3). Briefly, an experimental design with follow-up measures was used. Instruments were sent to participants at three times: baseline (June 1998), 1-year follow-up (April 1999), and 2-year follow-up (March 2000). Participants were randomly assigned to the control or Portfolio group after the baseline instrument was returned. The control group participants continued as usual
Development and reliability of attitude scales
Attitude scores were generated for five sets of questions in the Portfolio survey. The five attitude scores measured the perception that the Portfolio maintained registration and competence (PMC), attitude towards professional development (APD), perception that self-reflection determined career goals (PSR), self-efficacy to conduct a learning needs assessment (SELN), and perception that continuing professional education improved competence (PCPE). Subjects responded to statements using a
Results
Subject description
A total of 1,082 instruments were returned at the 2-year follow-up for a 79% (1082/1373) response rate. There were 481 Portfolio (481/661; response rate 73%) and 597 control (597/714; response rate 84%) respondents. The majority of participants were 31 to 50 years old and female. A greater percentage were white and lived in suburban and urban areas. Over 54% were employed full-time and about 40% had an annual gross household income of greater than $60,001. Approximately half
Differences over time in the scores within groups
For those respondents who expressed opinions for all items at baseline and at the 2-year follow-up, PMC, PSR, SELN, and PCPE scores were not significantly different over time for either the control or the Portfolio group. The attitude towards professional development (APD) score decreased slightly between baseline and 2-year follow-up in the control group (baseline 30.1±3.8, 2-year follow-up 29.7±4.2, P<.05) but did not change in the Portfolio group (baseline 30.0±3.9, 2-year follow-up
Ability to find appropriate CPE activities
There were no significant differences between the control and Portfolio group in the ability to find appropriate CPE activities (data not shown); however, there were differences by focus of CPE and demographic characteristics. Table 4 summarizes the relation between focus of CPE activity and ability to find appropriate CPE activities. If the focus of CPE was in food science, business and communications, management, or research, a greater percentage of respondents had more difficulty finding CPE
Discussion
A promising result of the national pilot Portfolio study was that significantly more of the Portfolio participants completed self-reflection, assessed their learning needs, and developed learning plans than control participants and it took them less time to complete these important activities (5), (6). The Portfolio guide aided the Portfolio respondents in understanding the process and knowing what to do when the Portfolio process was implemented and the majority of Portfolio respondents were
Application
The study showed that the Portfolio process of recertification is a process that pilot study participants believed could be used to efficiently maintain competence. Areas of concern are the need for more affordable CPE activities for some practitioners and the possibility of using more innovative and technological methods of delivery for rural practitioners. Future research may want to determine more specifically why dietetics practitioners find some CPE activities do not meet their needs.
Acknowledgements
This project was funded by the Commission on Dietetic Registration. The authors would like to thank Kimberly Williams and Alicia Sparrer for their assistance during the data collection and manuscript writing phases of this project. The authors would also like to thank the CDR staff and members of the Competency Assurance Panel for their support during this project.
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