Barriers to continuing medical education in Australian prevocational doctors

Abstract

To determine perceived barriers to continuing education for Australian hospital-based prevocational doctors, a cross sectional cohort survey was distributed to medical administrators for secondary redistribution to 2607 prevocational doctors from Although these individual groups have over-arching representative governing bodies, they have traditionally existed with minimal consultation and collaboration, leading to a fragmented approach to education. 4 Inadequate funding for education, documented by the Australian Government Productivity Commission, represents a significant practical barrier to prevocational education.5 Current systems for delivery of education, heavily reliant on the "apprenticeship model", are recognised as under-resourced, reliant on the goodwill of the educators and unsustainable. 6Barriers to continuing medical education (CME) for doctors in specialist training and general practice have been documented. 7-9However little is known about the barriers to education facing prevocational doctors for whom this educational framework is proposed. Gleason gives an Australian junior doctor' s perspective, noting that no published data exist documenting the amount of teaching available. 10Due to lack of data, Gleason provides experience-based generalisations: junior doctors spend minimal time involved in structured education and learning; teaching is of variable quality and relevance; and junior doctors' attendance at educational activities is prevented by high workloads, constant interruptions and emphasis on service provision.The Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing commissioned a Learning Needs Assessment Project, an Australia-wide questionnaire regarding educational issues for hospital-based prevocational doctors. Dent et al reported results related to occupational preparedness and exposure to and desirability of existing and future educational methods.11 This study examined responses from this national questionnaire pertaining to perceived barriers to continuing education experienced by prevocational doctors.For Australian public hospital-based doctors, we aimed to determine the perceived barriers to CME during the prevocational years, identify rotations where barriers were perceived to be greatest, and examine whether variations in these perceptions existed between subgroups of prevocational doctors. Methods DefinitionPrevocational doctors were defined as doctors working in Australian public hospitals in postgraduate years one and two and doctors in subsequent years who had not enrolled in a specialist training program. QuestionnaireThe methodology of this study has been previously reported.11 Briefly, the questionnaire, developed at St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne, consisted of 45 items with graded Likert-type scales and free text questions. The questionnaire aimed to determine the occupation-related preparedness, preferred educational methods, and barriers to CME of prevocational doctors and gathered demographic data including age, gender, postgraduate year, university ...

Addressing the hiatus of learning incentives for prevocational doctors: continuing medical education points for interns

“…This made attendance difficult, despite these sessions occurring during “protected time” (unpublished data). This is consistent with previous research findings which have shown that junior doctors find it difficult to choose between patient care, work demands and their own professional development (PD) 1 …”

Barriers to Practicing Continuous Medical Education among Primary Health Care Physicians in Alahsa, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

“…In addition, none of these studies have addressed the barrier to practicing CME as the main objective, apart from one study done at hospital level [17]. Furthermore, none of them undertook an in-depth analysis.…”

“…In a more recent study conducted in Australia involving 437 prevocational doctors, 85% identified lack of time as the main barrier to practicing CME followed by clinical commitment (65%), workload issues (27%), teaching program inadequacies (26%), lack of protected time for education (17%), resistance from registrars (13%), resistance from consultants (10%), motivational issues (11%), and geographic remoteness [17]. Another Australian study shows that the local general practitioners' main barriers to CME were lack of time and loss of income [18].…”

Barreras para la formación en docencia de los profesores de medicina: una aproximación cualitativa

“…Junto con lo anterior, la percepción de ser "buen docente" y la escasa autocrítica de las propias habilidades docentes, la falta de reconocimiento académico y de incentivos económicos asociados a la docencia, emergen como barreras confi rmando los hallazgos en otros estudios [17][18][19][20][21] . Sin embargo, otros obstáculos para la capacitación en docencia, tales como la lejanía física y la falta de sentido de pertenencia a la institución no fueron mencionados por los entrevistados [28][29] .…”

“…Si bien existen algunas investigaciones sobre el problema de la falta de asistencia de los profesores de medicina a cursos de capacitación en docencia en otros países, no había estudios en la realidad local, por lo que pareció relevante conocer en profundidad lo que estaba ocurriendo en la EMUC [16][17][18][19][20] . El objetivo de este estudio fue explorar los factores que difi cultan que los académicos de la EMUC asistan a los cursos del DEM.…”