Narrative review: Continuous professional development training programmes in Africa and their limitations

African Journal of Laboratory Medicine

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Narrative review: Continuous professional development training programmes in Africa and their limitations
 
Creator Ndlovu, Nqobile Erasmus, Rajiv T. Zemlin, Annalise E.
 
Subject Laboratory medicine; Public Health Continuing professional development; laboratory professionals; training; African countries; health professional boards
Description Continuous professional development (CPD) represents a cornerstone in the advancement of professional skills and knowledge across various sectors. It is globally recognised as a transformative process that unlocks potential, increases capacity, and fosters personal growth. This narrative review article aimed to understand how the CPD training programmes for laboratory professionals are implemented and sustained in Africa. A narrative review was conducted where a comprehensive search was conducted across PubMed, Embase, and web searches for white and/or grey literature, facilitated by a custom Python script. A combination of keywords, truncations, and subject headings targeted four key themes: Continuing professional development (and related terms), laboratory professionals, African countries, and aspects of implementation and scoring. The search was restricted to articles in English published from 2009 to 2024. While the actual training needs and gaps for CPD programmes are widely known, the actual implementation of CPD has remained a challenge. In the past, CPD training programmes have been implemented to address the lack of skills and the insufficient and skewed distribution of these health workers. This approach is not sustainable and has led to some challenges with coordination, quality assurance, and regulation. Each country has its unique context and training needs; therefore, CPD needs to be more coordinated and tailored so that professionals are given the right training for their needs.What this study adds: Addressing training gaps for laboratory professionals in Africa will require a well-structured, coordinated and tailored approach that will deliver a continent-wide CPD programme.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2025-05-16
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Literature review
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/ajlm.v14i1.2602
 
Source African Journal of Laboratory Medicine; Vol 14, No 1 (2025); 8 pages 2225-2010 2225-2002
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://ajlmonline.org/index.php/ajlm/article/view/2602/3134 https://ajlmonline.org/index.php/ajlm/article/view/2602/3135 https://ajlmonline.org/index.php/ajlm/article/view/2602/3136 https://ajlmonline.org/index.php/ajlm/article/view/2602/3137
 
Coverage Africa — —
Rights Copyright (c) 2025 Nqobile Ndlovu, Rajiv T. Erasmus, Annalise E. Zemlin https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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