Factors Associated with Continuing Education and Professional Development Engagement Among Social Workers and Other Behavioral Health Professionals

Background and Purpose:

Workforce development, including continuing education and professional development, are core implementation drivers and central to diffusion and dissemination efforts. Adult learning principles provide a framework for pedagogical practice that recognizes the value of solution-based learning opportunities while acknowledging the learner’s scope of experience and practice. Adult learning modalities can be arrayed along a continuum that include asynchronous and synchronous learning, virtual and in-situ learning, individual-based learning and team/agency-based learning or technical assistance. The purpose of this study was to identify factors associated with high level engagement in workforce development and evaluate the equitable access to high level engagement among social workers and other behavioral health professionals serving underserved and vulnerable communities.

Methods:

A secondary analysis of participant post-event evaluation data was used to evaluate patterns of engagement among behavioral health professionals in a 4-state, 6-territory region of the Pacific southwest U.S. Participants were individuals providing behavioral health services who attended conferences, trainings and seminars, or participated in technical assistance provided by the Pacific Southwest Addiction Technology Transfer Center. Engagement was measured the number of training sessions that each participant participated between October 2017 and March 2021. Data were gathered from 264 events, and 5,168 participants. Factors examined included participant demographics, educational level, work setting, and function. Training related variables included topic, modality, # participants, and location. Analyses were conducted to assess the associations between the participants’ characteristics and the # of events attended. Chi-square analysis was used to assess unadjusted associations between attributes of participants’ initial training event, their characteristics, and their level of engagement (1-2 vs. 3 and more sessions). To analyze the adjusted data, we conducted logistic regression.

Results:

Unadjusted analysis found significant associations between modality (p=.00), training topic (p=.00), training session size (p=.00), and satisfaction (p=.01) of participants’ initial learning engagement and their subsequent level of engagement. Regarding participant-level factors, race and ethnicity (p=.00), educational attainment (p=.00), primary profession (p=.00), employment setting (p=.00), work location (p=.00) were found to be significantly associated with level of engagement. Findings from adjusted analysis of logistic regression reveal that participants’ whose initial learning engagement was asynchronous dissemination (odds ratio [OR] = 0.14, p=.00) and synchronous learning (OR=0.60, p=.01) were less likely to show high levels of engagement, compared to those who initially attended individually tailored technical assistance. Participants initially attending conferences (OR=1.65, p=.00), learning events with fewer participants (less than 20; OR=1.52, p=.00) and trainings related to associated clinical skills (OR=1.44, p=.00) were more likely to display higher levels of engagement.

Conclusions and Implications:

These findings document patterns of learning among behavioral health professionals in a large, ethnically and geographically diverse region of the country. Accessing a fully array of adult learning modalities, topics, and platforms these behavioral health professionals displayed patterns of engagement that were influenced by their initial learning experience, along with a variety of personal-professional dimensions. These dimensions provide a theoretically informed heuristic for advancing dissemination and implementation strategies involving workforce development.