- Title
- GP trainees' in-consultation information-seeking: associations with human, paper and electronic sources
- Creator
- Magin, Parker; Morgan, Simon; van Driel, Mieke; Wearne, Susan; Tapley, Amanda; Henderson, Kim; Oldmeadow, Chris; Ball, Jean; Scott, John; Spike, Neil; McArthur, Lawrie
- Relation
- Family Practice Vol. 32, Issue 5, p. 525-532
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/fampra/cmv047
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2015
- Description
- Background: Answering clinical questions arising from patient care can improve that care and offers an opportunity for adult learning. It is also a vital component in practising evidence-based medicine. GPs' sources of in-consultation information can be human or non-human (either hard copy or electronic). Objectives: To establish the prevalence and associations of GP trainees' in-consultation information-seeking, and to establish the prevalence of use of different sources of information (human, hard copy and electronic) and the associations of choosing particular sources. Methods: A cross-sectional analysis of data (2010-13) from an ongoing cohort study of Australian GP trainees' consultations. Once each 6-month training term, trainees record detailed data of 60 consecutive consultations. The primary outcome was whether the trainee sought in-consultation information for a problem/diagnosis. Secondary outcomes were whether information-seeking was from a human (GP, other specialist or other health professional) or from a non-human source (electronic or hard copy), and whether a non-human source was electronic or hard copy. Results: Six hundred forty-five trainees (response rate 94.3%) contributed data for 84 723 consultations including 131 583 problems/diagnoses. In-consultation information was sought for 15.4% (95% confidence interval = 15.3-15.6) of problems/diagnoses. Sources were: GP in 6.9% of problems/diagnoses, other specialists 0.9%, other health professionals 0.6%, electronic sources 6.5% and hard-copy sources 1.5%. Associations of information-seeking included younger patient age, trainee full-time status and earlier training stage, longer consultation duration, referring the patient, organizing follow-up and generating learning goals. Associations of choosing human information sources (over non-human sources) were similar, but also included the trainee's training organization. Associations of electronic rather than hard-copy information-seeking included the trainee being younger, the training organization and information-seeking for management rather than diagnosis. Conclusion: Trainee information-seeking is mainly from GP colleagues and electronic sources. Human information-sources are preferentially sought for more complex problems, even by these early-career GPs who have trained in the 'internet era'.
- Subject
- Australia; evidence-based medicine; family practice; general practitioners; information seeking behaviour; internet; internship and residency; primary health care
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1337422
- Identifier
- uon:27838
- Identifier
- ISSN:1460-2229
- Rights
- This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced version of an article accepted for publication in ‘Family Practice’ following peer review. The version of record Magin, Parker J.; Morgan, Simon; van Driel, Mieke; Wearne, Susan; Tapley, Amanda; Henderson, Kim; Oldmeadow, Chris; Ball, Jean; Scott, John; Spike, Neil; McArthur, Lawrie. "GP trainees' in-consultation information-seeking: associations with human, paper and electronic sources" Published in Family Practice, Vol. 32, Issue 5, pp 525-532, (2015) is available online at: https://academic.oup.com/fampra/article-lookup/doi/10.1093/fampra/cmv047.
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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