Professional Development and Domain-Specific Health Information Management Practices Among Health Information Management Professionals in Tertiary Hospitals in South-South Nigeria: A Multivariable Analysis

Background: Professional development is critical for maintaining competencies required for effective health information management (HIM) practice within modern digital health care systems. This study aimed to evaluate the association between professional developments and domain-specific HIM practices among HIM professionals in tertiary hospitals in South-South Nigeria. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional survey was conducted across three selected tertiary hospitals (UPTH, UCTH, and UBTH). A multistage sampling strategy, 136 HIM professionals were targeted from a population with 206, yielding 124 valid questionnaires (91.2% response rate). Professional development was examined in relation to electronic data entry practice (EDP), disease coding and indexing practice (DCP), clinical data analysis practice (CDAP), and clinical research practice (CRP). The data were analyzed using Pearson correlation, adjusted multivariable linear regression, and hierarchical block regression. Results: Professional development was strongly correlated with EDP (r = .717), DCP (r = .790), CDAP (r = .791), CRP (r = .773), and overall HIM practice (r = .778) (all p < .001. After adjustment for institutional and professional characteristics, professional development remained significantly associated with EDP (β = .442), DCP (β = .513), CDAP (β = .437), and CRP (β = .427) (all p < .001. In the hierarchical model, the addition of professional development increased the explained variance in overall HIM practice by 7.8% (ΔR² = .078, F-change = 111.61, p < .001). Adding professional development to the final hierarchical model explained an additional 7.8% of variance in overall practice (ΔR² = .078, F-change = 111.61, p < .001; final model R² = .922). Conclusion: Professional development is associated with enhanced practice across all four HIM domains. Continuous, competency-based training is essential for health system performance in developing health information ecosystems