Primary health care professionals’ opinions regarding continuing medical education: A cross sectional study

Continuing medical education (CME) is the foremost among the learning strategies that enhance knowledge and skills within the medical profession. This study aimed to evaluate primary healthcare professionals' CME in Abha City. A total of 267 primary health care (PHC) professionals. The researcher designed a data collection sheet that comprised personal characteristics and aspects of CME. About two-thirds of participants (65.5%) attended CME courses during the last year. The main criteria for attending CME courses were their topics (43.4%), convenience of time (41.2%), and interests (31.5%). About 16.1% of participants found that previously attended CME courses were not useful because of being a waste of time (12.7%), not obtaining any benefit (7.9%), and wasting of money (3.7%). On the other hand, 83.9% found that previously attended CME courses were useful because of their improved knowledge (68.9%) and skills (47.6%), while 30.7% stated that attending CME courses was to fulfill the required CME hours. Lectures were the most preferred educational method(48.3%). Hospital consultants were mostly preferred speakers (53.6%), followed by PHC physicians (34.1%) and university staff (25.8%). The main participants' source of information (95.5%), followed by textbooks (25.1%) and their colleagues at PHC (12.4%). About 31.5% of participants had no or low improvement in their knowledge, 38.6% underwent intermediate improvement and 30% had high improvement. Regarding improved skills, 43.4% had no or low improvement, 45.3% had intermediate improvement and 11.2% had high improvement. The main barriers against attending CME courses were the lack of time (44.9%) and the high workload (41.2%). CME attendance differed significantly according to participants' position (P = .023), with physicians being the most frequently attending (72.9%) and pharmacists being the least frequently attending (36.4%). Participants' knowledge improvement due to CME attendance differed significantly according to their position, with the highest improvement among lab technicians. Participants' skills improvement was highest among those aged > 40 years, among males, non-Saudis, those with Doctorate degrees, physicians, and those with > 10 years' experience. PHC professionals find CME courses valuable for knowledge enhancement, with lectures, videos, and presentations preferred. Information sources include internet, textbooks, and colleagues, but time constraints and workloads hinder attendance.