Needs Assessment For Continuing Professional Education Among Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons: Evidence From An Economically Developed Region in China

Abstract Background: This study aims to survey the demographic status of aesthetic plastic surgeons in an economically developed region and to investigate their continuing professional education needs in contents, training methods, and barriers in private and public hospitals. Methods: A cross-sectional survey with a self-administered questionnaire was conducted from January to December, 2020 in Guangdong, China. An in-depth key informant interviews were conducted to gain insights on the current demographic status. Demographic data and training needs assessment were collected and compared with the chi-square test, Fisher’s test, Mann-Whitney U-test using R software. Results: The disparity of surgeons’ demographic data between private and public hospitals was small. Over 60% of practicing aesthetic plastic surgeons transferred from other specialties, and one third of them had less than three years of working experience. Half surgeons attended training less than three times with an affordable expense of 1000-5000RMB. Almost 80% of them had strong willingness to attend a continuing professional education program. They prefer to attending further study in a tertiary hospital, short topic-focused training course with operation demonstrations. Their favorable training contents were rhinoplasty, eye surgery, and new technologies. Questionnaire survey revealed the likelihood that the surgeons had a graduate degree in public hospitals outweighed those in private hospitals (P<0.05). In-depth interview showed that the public hospitals focused more on repair and reconstructive surgery, academic research, whereas, private hospitals focused on market needs and were more profit-driven, where the organizational needs had influence on their different training needs for aesthetic plastic surgeons.Conclusion: It would be favorable to take the demographic status of aesthetic plastic surgeons and organizational needs into consideration in designing a continuing professional education program in plastic surgery.