[French hospital doctors attend many educational programmes but have organisational and financial difficulties for their continuing medical education].
BACKGROUND
Few data on the educational needs and practices of the French hospital doctors have been obtained through surveys. Considering that the CME information is now available on www.cnfmc.fr and that providers were accredited, we investigated, on a representative sample of hospital doctors, the CME practices and the knowledge of the CME system.


METHODS
A questionnaire was prepared during 2 working sessions organised by TNS Healtcare Sofres in July 2007. A sample of 300 doctors was set to be representative of hospital doctors through the 5 main regions, and hospital types. Telephone numbers were dialled by an automat in respect of the objectives of quotas. Questionnaires were administered by telephone between August 30 and September 7, 2007, and done by trained operators.


RESULTS
Among the 300 interviewed doctors, 218 (73%) were from general or specialised hospitals and 82 (27%) were from Universitary hospitals. They were equally installed all over France. Their specialties were: medicine 130 (43%); biology 51 (17%); pharmacy 45 (15%); surgery 15 (5%); psychiatry 9 (3%); others 49 (16%) including emergency and radiology. Among the 300 doctors, 125 (42%) declared having continuing education for more than 10 days per year, 122 (41%) between 6 and 10 days per year, and 51 (17%) less than 5 days, 2 (<1%) did not answer. 214 (71%) doctors were subscribing medical specialised or general journals, and 86 (29%) did not subscribe to any journal. For the sessions called " présentielles ", about 65% of the funding of the pedagogic expenses, the travel and housing were supported by the doctors and hospitals. The pharmaceutical industry supported 25% of these expenses. To the question " did you performed a clinical audit in your hospital? ", 75 (25%) answered yes (16% for the 82 doctors in Universitary hospitals, and 29% for the 211 doctors in general hospitals), 210 (70%) answered no, including the 134 (45% of the 300) who said that it was programmed. 15 (5%) did not answer. The educational methods that were preferred were congresses, and interactive workshops were demanded for the future, as well as the e-learning methods. Among the 300 doctors, 165 (55%) had organisational difficulties for their education, 143 (48%) had personal difficulties such as availability, and 135 (45%) had financial difficulties. 54 (18%) had no difficulty at all for their education.


CONCLUSIONS
This survey through telephone interviews of 300 hospital doctors showed that they followed many educational programmes, and they had difficulties to organize their education, with personal and financial difficulties. The e-learning development could be a solution that gives facilities to doctors.
Maisonneuve
Hervé
H
Global Alliance for Medical Education (www.game-cme.org), et Pfizer France, F-75668 Paris cedex 14, France. Herve.maisonneuve@pfizer.com
Touboul
Chantal
C
Bonnelye
Geneviève
G
Bertrand
Dominique
D
D004502:Education, Medical, Continuing / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration; D005602:France; D006801:Humans; D008505:Medical Staff, Hospital / Q000193:education*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires