Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Multicenter Study
. 2006 May;21(5):486-9.
doi: 10.1111/j.1525-1497.2006.00432.x.

Brief report: Multiprogram evaluation of reading habits of primary care internal medicine residents on ambulatory rotations

Cindy J Lai  1 , Eva Aagaard, Suzanne Brandenburg, Mohan Nadkarni, Henry G Wei, Robert Baron
Affiliations
Multicenter Study

Brief report: Multiprogram evaluation of reading habits of primary care internal medicine residents on ambulatory rotations

Cindy J Lai et al. J Gen Intern Med. 2006 May.

Abstract

Objective: To assess the reading habits and educational resources of primary care internal medicine residents for their ambulatory medicine education.

Design: Cross-sectional, multiprogram survey of primary care internal medicine residents.

Participants/setting: Second- and third-year residents on ambulatory care rotations at 9 primary care medicine programs (124 eligible residents; 71% response rate).

Measurements and main results: Participants were asked open-ended and 5-point Likert-scaled questions about reading habits: time spent reading, preferred resources, and motivating and inhibiting factors. Participants reported reading medical topics for a mean of 4.3+/-3.0 SD hours weekly. Online-only sources were the most frequently utilized medical resource (mean Likert response 4.16+/-0.87). Respondents most commonly cited specific patients' cases (4.38+/-0.65) and preparation for talks (4.08+/-0.89) as motivating factors, and family responsibilities (3.99+/-0.65) and lack of motivation (3.93+/-0.81) as inhibiting factors.

Conclusions: To stimulate residents' reading, residency programs should encourage patient- and case-based learning; require teaching assignments; and provide easy access to online curricula.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Frequency of reading sources used for ambulatory medicine.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Motivating factors for reading ambulatory medicine. Motivating factors were rated according to the frequency that each motivated residents to read.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Inhibiting factors for reading ambulatory medicine. Each inhibiting factor was rated according to the respondents' degree of agreement.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Smith R. What clinical information do doctors need? BMJ. 1996;313:1062–8. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Nylenna M, Aasland OG. Primary care physicians and their information-seeking behaviour. Scand J Prim Health Care. 2000;18:9–13. - PubMed
    1. Mann KV, Chaytor KM. Help! Is anyone listening? An assessment of learning needs of practicing physicians. Acad Med. 1992;67(suppl):S4–6. - PubMed
    1. Choudhry N, Fletcher R, Soumerai S. Systematic review: the relationship between clinical experience and quality of health care. Ann Intern Med. 2005;142:260–73. - PubMed
    1. Evans CE, Haynes RB, Gilbert JR, Taylor DW, Sackett DL, Johnston M. Educational package on hypertension for primary care physicians. Can Med Assoc J. 1984;130:719–22. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types