Recherche qualitative sur les perceptions
de médecins québécois à l’égard du plan
de développement professionnel continu
du Collège des médecins du Québec
In 2007, the Collège des médecins du Québec adopted the Continuing professional development plan (CPD) as a tool to maintain professional competency. Despite the fact that most physicians agree on the obligation to keep their knowledge up to date and to apply state-of-the-art medical techniques, treatments and procedures, some of them have a negative opinion about the CPD plan. To better understand the perceptions of Quebec physicians, a qualitative research was carried out in the summer of 2010, through a series of semi-structured interviews conducted with 27 physicians. Purposeful sampling was used to select key informants and physicians with a potentially negative opinion towards the CPD plan (“negative” cases). The remaining participants were identified through snowball and opportunistic sampling. Combining these recruitment methods allowed us to get a wide diversity of opinions and to achieve a high level of empirical data saturation. Although a majority of the physicians interviewed agree with the idea of having a CPD plan, comments and suggestions mentioned by some participants should help the Collège des médecins du Québec improve its plan. Some irritants were mentioned, like having to maintain a CPD portfolio of activities, a task considered tedious and cumbersome by some participants. In contrast, the majority of participants are of the opinion that the CPD plan reflects the efforts made by a physician to keep up to date with medical advances. Finally, they all agree with the fact that maintaining their professional competency is a moral as well as deontological obligation for all physicians.
Continuing Professional Plan Continuing Medical Education Medical Competencies