The continuing education activity of allied health professionals. Part 1) A descriptive and analytic profile

The purposes of this study were to determine 1) the nature and magnitude of allied health professionals' continuing education (CE) activities, and 2) the utility of selected demographic and situational characteristics of these personnel as predictors of such activities. A cross-sectional survey design gathered demographic, situational and CE activity data from individuals representing three major allied health occupational clusters. Regarding participation in CE, analysis of the data indicates that those sampled tend to be active learners, that their efforts are more often self-directed than other-directed, and that the pattern of these activities is generally consistent with that observed among other health professional groups. In terms of predicting CE activity, the findings indicate that the situational attributes of these personnel account for more variation in reported levels of both self and other-directed learning efforts than do their demographic characteristics. A knowledge of these relationships has both practical importance for providers of CE and theoretical meaning for those who study this complex phenomenon.