Health information managers’ engagement in continuing professional development

Background: Continuing professional development (CPD) involves ongoing learning to maintain and enhance professional competence. CPD for health information managers (HIMs) is embodied in the Health Information Management Association of Australia’s (HIMAA) Professional Competency Standards. The CPD engagement of Australia’s HIMs has not been explored. Objective: To examine HIMs’ engagement with professional body-initiated CPD, and the associated enablers and barriers. Method: A cross-sectional survey was administered to 72 Victorian graduate HIMs from four cohorts: 1985, 1995, 2005 and 2015. It elicited their perceptions of CPD and engagement with HIMAA events and activities. Results: When asked if engaging in CPD was important: 70.8% agreed; 9.7% disagreed; 19.4% were unsure. Motivations for engagement were networking, continuous learning and skill development and gaining insights from the work of others. Barriers to participation included movement outside of HIM roles, lack of time or interest and perceived irrelevance. The most common activities were special interest/working group(s) (27.8%) and other (sub)committees (18.1%). Seventy-two percent had attended an (inter)national conference or seminar/webinar. Notably, 57% had not participated in any HIMAA-related activities. Discussion: HIMs must continually build their knowledgebase and skills to align with the evolving health information ecosystem. A large proportion of participants acknowledged the importance of CPD; however, of concern, are the 29.1% who disagreed or were unsure, and the 57% who did not participate in any professional body-initiated CPD activities. Conclusion: There is room to strengthen HIMs’ engagement with CPD to ensure their commitment to career-centred lifelong learning, maintain professional competence by meeting a core competency outlined in the Professional Competency Standards and contribute to the continuing development of the profession. Implications for health information management practice: HIMAA should continue to diversify CPD content and formats to sustain and further enhance engagement, to ensure HIMs remain competent, and responsive to the changing health information environment.