Continuing medical education by anaesthetists in Scotland: activities, motivation and barriers

A postal questionnaire survey was carried out to determine the activities, motivation and barriers to continuing medical education amongst career grade anaesthetists in Scotland. Four hundred and ten consultants and 49 non-consultant career grade anaesthetists were surveyed with a response rate of 84.5%. All respondents had taken part in some educational activities in the past two years. Over 80% had attended 10 or more departmental meetings and over 90% had attended meetings of a Regional society or National meetings. Less than 50% had attended for clinical experience with a colleague and only 20% had done so in another centre. There were trends of changing educational activity with increasing age. The most common motivation was to keep up to date for current clinical duties with keeping up to date for teaching second, but younger consultants were more likely to undertake continuing medical education activities in case their clinical duties changed. Perceived barriers to continuing medical education were similar for internal and external activities but funding was less of a limitation for those working in district general hospitals. There is scope for encouraging activities such as clinical experience with a colleague and a need to explore in greater detail the perception of barriers to continuing medical education and their influence on participation.