title: 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 August 2003 to October 2004. Four hundred and seventy valid questionnaires (18.1%) were returned. Only seven per cent (33/470) did not identify any barriers to continuing education. Barriers identified the most were lack of time (85% [371/437]), clinical commitment (65% [284/437]), resistance from registrars (13% [57/437]) and resistance from consultant staff (10% [44/437]). Other barriers included workload issues (27% [27/98]), teaching program inadequacies (26% [25/98]), lack of protected time for education (17% [17/98]), motivational issues (11% [10/98]) and geographic remoteness (10% [10/98]). Australian graduates (87%) identified lack of time more frequently than international medical graduates (77%) (P = 0.036). Perceived barriers did not differ significantly between doctors of differing postgraduate years.
authors.affiliation: Emergency Department, St Vincent's Health, Fitzroy, Melbourne, VIC, Australia. sandra.neate@gmail.com
authors.forename: Sandra L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Neate
authors.forename: Andrew W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Dent
authors.forename: Tracey J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Weiland
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Farish
authors.forename: Brian C
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Jolly
authors.forename: Brendan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Crotty
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001315:Australia; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004502:Education, Medical, Continuing; D006270:Health Facility Administrators; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency; D008505:Medical Staff, Hospital / Q000193:education*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016526:Workload