Overworked doctors have less effective approach to learning

Recent research has shown that doctors who feel overworked are likely to take a superficial approach to learning, be motivated by external forces, and perceive many barriers to continuing medical education. Throughout their careers physicians face enormous challenges in managing the growth of medical knowledge. Students who perceive choice, independence, and good teaching at university take a deep, integrative approach to learning compared to those who feel overworked. Feeling overwhelmed at work is associated with a disorganised and superficial approach to learning and perception of many barriers to continuing medical education. The researchers examined attitudes to learning among physicians in Ontario, Canada. They sent questionnaires to a random sample of 800 physicians and a reminder postcard was sent to non-respondents after two weeks and the complete package resent after one month. 373 physicians responded to the survey. This survey was carried out to understand the approaches to learning of practising physicians in their workplace and to assess the relation of these approaches to their motivation for, preferred methods of, and perceived barriers to continuing medical education. They found that doctors who felt they had choice and were well supported were more likely to learn effectively and be self motivated. Perception of the workplace climate affects physicians' approaches to learning at work and their motivation for and perceived barriers to continuing medical education. Younger, rural, family physicians may be most vulnerable to feeling overworked and adopting less effective approaches to learning. Further work is required to determine if changing the workplace environment will help physicians learn more effectively. Medicine is an everchanging field due to medical advances and doctors need to upgrade their skills and knowledge on a regular basis. Regulatory bodies, medical educators, and doctors themselves need to understand the factors that affect lifelong learning. Heavy workload and a surface disorganised approach to learning were correlated with every listed barrier to continuing medical education. The deep approach to learning was associated with independent learning activities without barriers. Physicians who believe they have choice, independence, and support in their work take a deep approach to learning, are internally motivated, and use independent learning methods. Further work is needed to find out if changing the work place environment will help doctors learn more effectively.