How medical practitioners define their continuous professional development: implications for simulation-based teaching and learning

In order to explore possibilities of introducing simulation-based teaching and learning specifically in continuous professional development for medical practitioners, a qualitative study was initiated by researcher of Medical Education Technology Centre of Rīga Stradiņš University in cooperation with education science researcher from University of Latvia. Objectives of the study are: 1) to explore understanding of ‘professional development’ within random sample of medical practitioners in Latvia; 2) to explore content of their professional development activities respectively; 3) to draw conclusions on how these findings may shape further introduction of simulation-based teaching and learning in continuous professional development for medical practitioners. An electronic survey consisting of central open-ended questions and additional questions regarding socio-demographic information was developed. The language of the survey is Latvian. It was wildly disseminated using social media possibilities and aimed two professional fields: medicine and pedagogy, as those are fields of interest of authors of the survey. Respondents were encouraged to give broad answers to the open-ended questions regarding their understanding of the “professional development” concept and their actual professional development practice . In addition, respondents were asked to mention their profession (position), gender, age, total duration of work experience in the field, number of jobs, and geographic region of their main employer. The survey deliberately was made concise in order to improve response rate. Survey respondents from medical field only are included in this study. 65 medical professionals from Latvia participated in the survey (89% women; mean age: 39; SD: 10,32; mean work experience years: 15; SD: 10,92). Content analysis is still ongoing, and results will be presented in RW2021. To develop simulation-based teaching and learning for medical professionals in Latvia, their perception and actual practice of continuous professional development should be taken into account. Specific implications for simulation-based teaching and learning will be presented in RW2021.