Continuing Professional Development: Views and Barriers Toward Participation Among Malaysian 

Abstract

Continuing professional development (CPD) is a lifelong learning approach to maintain and enhance professional competencies. This cross-sectional study aimed to examine the pharmacists' preferred CPD activities and barriers to CPD participation. A survey instrument was distributed to all government pharmacists (N = 3876) in Malaysia. The response rate was 29.2 per cent. The majority of the pharmacists (92 per cent) believed that engaging in CPD would improve their performances in their current role. Almost 90 per cent of the respondents preferred to participate in CPD activities associated with continuing education such as workshops and conferences attendance. Barriers to CPD participation were current job constraints, lack of time, and accessibility in terms of travel and cost. It is important to address these issues before the implementation of mandatory CPD for pharmacists in Malaysia.