title: [How to learn medical practice? A qualitative study of physicians' perception of their own learning processes].
abstract: In this article we explore how physicians develop professional knowledge in their everyday work. 20 indepth interviews with physicians working in the surgical and internal medicine departments of a Norwegian hospital were conducted in 1994. Explanatory models from situated learning theory were applied to analyse the taped interview material. The expert-novice relation emerges as the core of the traditional medical learning institutions. Here the inexperienced physician learns the necessary practical skills, ways of reasoning and standards of diagnosis and treatment in the hospital. In interaction with a more experienced physician the novice transcends what she can do alone and develops as a professional. The quality of learning depends on the dialogue between the novice and the expert in the actual situation. The physicians' descriptions of their own learning process change with increasing competence and position in the hospital hierarchy.
authors.affiliation: Legeforeningens forskningsinstitutt, Oslo.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Akre
authors.forename: S R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Ludvigsen
mesh_terms: D002983:Clinical Competence; D004501:Education, Medical; D004502:Education, Medical, Continuing; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D017145:Models, Educational; D009664:Norway; D010465:Perception; D010820:Physicians / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013663:Teaching