JCEHP JCEHP JCEHP JCEHP JCEHP  
     title   icon icon icon  
  icon icon icon  
HOME  |  SITE MAP  |  CONTACT US
Your Location: Home > Volume 29, Issue 4 

CURRENT ISSUE

BACK ISSUES

SUBSCRIBE

ADVERTISE

ABOUT JCEHP

FOR AUTHORS

JCEHP AWARD

SEARCH
 
Volume 29 (4)

Volume 29, Issue 4, Fall 2009line
J Contin Educ Health Prof 2009; 29(4): 254
ORIGINAL RESEARCH

The use of medical information in Nigeria: The influence of gender and status
Clara C. Okoro, Iheanyi Okoro

A b s t r a c t

Introduction: Medical doctors are important members of the health-care team, and to discharge their duties credibly, they need adequate and quick information. A search of the literature yielded a handful of studies on the provision and organization of medical information with little emphasis on the influence of personal variables on information utilization. We report the influence of gender and status on reasons for searching medical information by doctors in Nigeria.
Methods: A pretested questionnaire was given to all 720 doctors in active practice working in the 5 Teaching Hospitals of southeastern Nigeria. The returned questionnaires were analyzed by analysis of variance (ANOVA).
Results: Six hundred fourteen of 720 (85.3%) doctors responded to the questionnaire; 116 (18.9%) of the respondents were females. It was found that among the male resident doctors the most common reason for searching medical information was for examination preparation, which had 356 (89.9%) positive respondents, followed by career development, 340 (85.9%). For the female residents, updating knowledge was the most common reason, with 90 (91.8%) positive respondents followed by examination preparation, 87 (88.8%). Updating knowledge was the most common reason for both the male and female consultants, followed by research for teaching and publication.
Discussion: The male resident doctors were more concerned with passing their professional examinations, and that was their main reason for searching medical information. The other groups searched information mostly to update their knowledge. Better medical practice was not an important reason to any of the groups. This attitude should be changed through continuing medical education (CME), which refers to a specific form of continuing education that helps those in the medical field maintain competence and learn about new and developing areas of their field.

Lessons For Practice
  • Male resident doctors in Nigeria search information mostly for the reason of passing professional examinations, but their female counterparts and the consultants do so mainly to update their knowledge in medicine.
  • Among doctors in southeastern Nigeria, publication and better practice are not important reasons to search medical information.
  • There are low health indices and a dearth of publications from Nigeria and this part of the world.
  • CME is needed to improve the informationseeking skills of doctors in Nigeria.
  • Health policy makers in Nigeria should ensure that a program for mandatory participation in CME is implemented, enforced, and supported with infrastructure.

line


Copyright © 1996-2010
JCEHP.com & The Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Professions
All rights reserved
Disclaimer ·  About This Site ·  Web Editor  · Make JCEHP Your Homepage

Information on this site was last updated: 11 March 2010