title: Attitudes to clinical guidelines--do GPs differ from other medical doctors?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Clinical guidelines are important for ensuring quality of treatment and care. For this reason, it is essential that clinicians adhere to guidelines. Review studies conclude that barriers to using guidelines are context specific. Nevertheless, there is a lack of studies that compare the attitudes of different groups of doctors to guidelines.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To survey the attitudes of Norwegian medical practitioners to clinical guidelines and the reasons for any scepticism, and to compare general practitioners (GPs) with other medical doctors in Norway in this respect.
  
  
  METHODS
  Postal questionnaire to a panel of 1649 Norwegian medical doctors.
  
  
  RESULTS
  1072 doctors responded (65%). 97% claimed to be familiar with and following guidelines. A majority expressed confidence in guidelines issued by the health authorities and the medical association. GPs are significantly more uncertain about the legal status of, accessibility of and evidence in guidelines than other doctors. The most important barriers to guideline adherence are concerns about the uniqueness of individual cases and reliance on one's own professional discretion. Both groups rank attitudinal constraints higher than practical constraints, but GPs more often report practical issues as reasons for non-adherence.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  It is suggested that creating trust in guidelines could be more important than more efforts to improve guideline format and accessibility. It may also be worth considering whether guidelines should be implemented using different processes in generalist and specialist care.
authors.affiliation: Uni Rokkan Centre, Nygaardsgaten 5, Bergen 5015, Norway. benedicte.carlsen@uni.no
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Carlsen
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bringedal
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D005260:Female; D058005:General Practitioners / Q000523:psychology*; D019983:Guideline Adherence; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009664:Norway; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires