General Practitioners' preferences and use of educational media: a German perspective

Abstract

Background: Several studies suggest that General Practitioners (GPs) prefer "traditional" media such as journals or quality circles when they are seeking out different options to meet their continuing medical education (CME) requirements. A survey was designed in order to gain a better understanding of German General Practitioners' preferences for different forms of educational media that will meet their CME needs.Methods: Four hundred and forty nine (N = 449) German physicians were contacted to take part in this study on the occasion of one of their quality circle meetings. The participating physicians received a standardized 26-item-questionnaire that surveyed their preferences for different forms of educational media. A factor analysis was performed in order to determine whether the observed variables can be explained largely or entirely in terms of the underlying patterns.Results: Two hundred and sixty-four physicians with an average age of 51.1 years participated (28.5% female, 71.5% male). We found that GPs favor learning environments such as: journals, colleagues, and quality circles. New media like the internet was used less often for their learning activities, even though the usage of the internet in general was quite high. The most important requirements for media in medical education as perceived by the participants were its relevancy for daily practice and dependability. Conclusion:Despite a growing use of the Internet it seems that German GPs favor "classical/ traditional" settings for their learning activities. These results should be taken into consideration when planning CME or CPD programs or other learning activities.Trial registration: Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN36550981. BackgroundIn the context of medical care recent, significant developments in the areas of technology, therapy and new forms of medical treatment ask for a timely diffusion of available evidence on interventions. Thus the translation of knowledge into practice is essential in order to maintain and increase the quality of daily practice [1]. As a consequence, health professionals such as General Practitioners (GPs) have to ensure that their knowledge and skills are up to date. Since the early Eighties, a number of studies and reviews have demonstrated the positive influence continuing medical education (CME) has on a physicians' knowledge and competence [2][3][4]. Over the same period of time, peer review groups and quality circles (QCs) have formed, i.e. regional meetings of GPs including specialists in order to discuss both clinical topics and new developments in politics and funding. The first QCs of GPs in Germany were founded in 1991/92 to help GPs tackle problems of quality management in the patients' daily care. Today, the participation of German GPs in QCs is mandatory in order to be part of most of the governmental funded disease management programs or to be part of model projects and initiatives from health insurers. Hence, nearly 50% of all German GPs are now organized in QCs [5]. Parallel to this proce...

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“…1 In Germany, the circulation of educational medical journals seems to exceed that of medical journals that emphasize research.…”

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