Table 1 Characteristics and quality assessment of the included studies
Study design | Author | Country | Participants | Study size | Relevant research question(s) | Quality |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Systematic review and meta-analysis | Fontaine et al. [27] | Canada | Medical practitioners, nurses, health sciences students, mixed health professionals | 21 studies N = 3543 participants | RQ 2—type of CPD | High |
Systematic review | Cant et al. [32] | Australia | Nurses | 16 systematic reviews | RQ 2—type of CPD | High |
Cervero and Gains [22] | United States | Medical practitioners | 8 systematic reviews | RQ 2—type of CPD | Moderate | |
Granchi et al. [35] | Australia | Surgeons | 19 studies | RQ 2—type of CPD | Medium | |
King et al. [34] | United Kingdom | Nurses | 39 studies | RQ 2—type of CPD | Medium | |
Reeves et al. [31] | United Kingdom | Podiatrists, complementary therapists, dentists, dieticians, medical practitioners, hygienists, paramedics, psychologists, psychotherapists, midwives, nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, radiographers, speech therapists, social workers, assistant practitioners, care/case co-ordinators and managers | 25 studies | RQ 2—type of CPD | High | |
Rohwer et al. [25] | United Kingdom | Medical practitioners, nurses, physiotherapists, physician assistants, athletic trainers and mixed health professionals | 24 studies | RQ 2—type of CPD | High | |
Rouleau et al. [28] | Canada | Registered nurses | 22 systematic reviews | RQ 2—type of CPD | High | |
Samuel et al. [23] | United States | Medical practitioners, nurses, dentists, pharmacists, other allied health professionals, mixed professionals | 63 syntheses | RQ 2—type of CPD | Medium | |
Vaona et al. [26] | Canada | Medical practitioners, nurses, childcare health consultants, mixed health professionals | 16 RCTs | RQ 2—type of CPD | High | |
Vazquez-Calatayud et al. [55] | Spain | Nurses | 9 studies | RQ 6—scope of practice | Medium | |
Randomised controlled trial | Mehta et al. [58] | United States | Rheumatologists | Intervention arm N = 26 Control N = 63 | RQ 7—self-directed, peer or curriculum | Medium |
Quasi-experimental study | Wu et al. [30] | Singapore | Nurse preceptors | Intervention arm N = 75 Control arm N = 75 | RQ 2—type of CPD | Medium |
Cohort | Kelsch et al. [37] | United States | Dental hygienists | Mandated N = 764 Not mandated N = 998 | RQ 3—mandated CPD | Low |
Neimeyer et al. [39] | United States | Psychologists | N = 790 participants | RQ 3—mandated CPD | Low | |
Rothke et al. [38] | United States | Psychologists | N = 5,215 participants | RQ 3—mandated CPD | Medium | |
Vandergrift et al. [14] | United States | Medical practitioners | Policy change N = 3,954 No change N = 15,609 | RQ 1—quantity of CPD | Medium | |
Case control | Wenghofer et al. [40] | Canada | Medical practitioner | Cases N = 942 Controls N = 1,850 | RQ 3—mandated CPD | High |
Qualitative–mixed methods | College of Dental Hygienists of British Columbia | Canada | Dental hygienists | Survey N = 2,886 Survey of sub-set N = 71 Focus groups N = 13 | RQ 1—quantity of CPD RQ 7—self-directed, peer or curriculum | Medium |
Drumm et al. [42] | Republic of Ireland | Pharmacists | N = 7 representatives of different accreditation bodies | RQ 4—accreditation | High | |
Schindel et al. [51] | Canada | Pharmacists | Focus groups N = 42 Survey N = 416 | RQ 6—scope of practice | Medium | |
Qualitative–semi-structured interviews | Austin and Gregory [52] | Canada | Pharmacists | N = 20 participants | RQ 6—scope of practice | Medium |
Hobbs et al. [54] | Australia | Paramedics | N = 10 participants | RQ 6—scope of practice | Medium | |
Correlational | Horn et al. [56] | United States | Paediatric nurses | N = 74 participants | RQ 6—scope of practice | Low |
Yardbrough et al. [57] | United States | Nurses | N = 67 participants | RQ 6—scope of practice | Low | |
Cross-sectional | Buttars et al. [36] | United States | Psychologists | N = 294 participants | RQ 2—type of CPD | Low |
Fairs [53] | New Zealand | Osteopaths | N = 303 participants | RQ 6—scope of practice | Medium | |
Novakovitch [41] | United States | Nurses | N = 10 webinars | RQ 4—accreditation | Low | |
Salinas et al. [29] | United States | Medical practitioners | N = 605 CME activities | RQ 2—type of CPD | Low | |
Narrative review | Atesok et al. [18] | United States | Orthopaedic residents | 21 studies | RQ 1—skills fade | Medium |
Gawad et al. [19] | Canada | Surgical residents, faculty members | 5 cohort studies | RQ 1—quantity of CPD | Medium | |
Maddocks et al. [17] | New Zealand | Military GPs, ICU/emergency nurses, military and civilian nurses, resident medical officers | 10 studies | RQ 1—quantity of CPD | Medium | |
Wallace and May [21] | United States | Medical practitioners | 62 studies | RQ 2—type of CPD | Medium | |
Descriptivea | Clark [50] | Canada | Occupational therapists | n/a | RQ 6—scope of practice | n/a |
McMahon et al. [48] | United States | Medical practitioners | n/a | RQ 4—accreditation | n/a | |
Regnier et al. [33] | United States | Medical practitioners | n/a—includes 3 cases | RQ 2—type of CPD | n/a | |
Regnier et al. [43] | Germany | Medical practitioners | n/a | RQ 4—accreditation | n/a |