Data and methods. This descriptive qualitative study was conducted across four Finnish higher education institutions. The data were collected through semi-structured thematic group interviews with 19 social and health care educators. The material was analyzed using inductive content analysis.

Results. The educators emphasized how important continuing education was to their professional development. When discussing the need for further education, the participants expressed a desire for continuing education that covers digital pedagogy and skills relevant to the modern working environment, i.e., entrepreneurial and management competence. However, the participants reported that both their employers and the institution responsible for education spent  insufficient resources on continuing education.

Discussion. Continuing education must cover relevant topics to be useful. This research provides new insight into how continuing education builds social and healthcare educators’ competence as well as which topics have not been covered  sufficiently.

Objective. The aim of this systematic review was to find new evidence on educators’ experiences of their competence in health and rehabilitation science higher education.

Methods. The study was a systematic review of previous peer-reviewed qualitative studies. The inclusion criteria were planned according to PICo: health and rehabilitation science professionals (Participants), competence (Phenomena of Interest) and teaching (Context). The search strategy was conducted by retrieving original studies from the databases of Cinahl (Ebsco), PubMed, Medic, EriC (ProQuest). Nine studies passed the inclusion criteria and quality assessment. Meta-synthesis was done by using summarizing thematic synthesis and abstraction.

Results. Six main themes were identified as important for educators’ competence and their continuous development: self-development, supervising, interaction, researching, a subject on educators’ own profession, networking, and multiculturalism competences.

Conclusions. Competence is dynamic, and it is possible for educators to train or develop further. The creativity and innovation are needed in developing educators’ competences in the future in designing new learning environments and organising an inclusive classroom for health and rehabilitation science students. More research is needed to understand better and develop the competences of health and rehabilitation science educators.