Οι αντιλήψεις των επαγγελματιών υγείας για τη σχέση μεταξύ της αξιολόγησης της απόδοσής τους και της συνεχιζόμενης εκπαίδευσής τους.

The attitudes of health professionals to job evaluation, performance and continuing education.

OBJECTIVE To explore the perceptions and attitudes of health professionals about continuing education and its interconnection to job evaluation and performance, according to their socio-demographic characteristics. METHOD A survey was conducted via specially designed structured questionnaires that were distributed to 270 health professionals, 185 of whom responded (response rate 68.5%). Analysis was conducted with the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), version 21.0; the bilateral level of statistical significance was set at 0.05. RESULTS The majority of the health professionals who participated in the study (63.8%) reported that evaluation is important for motivating them and improving their performance. The most significant motivational factor for them to participate in continuing professional educational programs appeared to be their willingness to improve their capabilities and the services provided to patients. Additional incentives to participate in continuing educational activities were associated with better performance evaluation. CONCLUSIONS Incentives for health professionals to participate in continuing professional educational activities are the wish to keep up with contemporary medical and technological developments, to cultivate skills and to maintain the provision of quality health services. The ethical reward, for which health employees have a high regard, emerges as an additional incentive for improvement of performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]