Abstract
This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. Objective: Physicians are required to be lifelong learners for the provision of quality patient care. At the same time, physician wellbeing is a critical component in the delivery of such care. This study was designed to examine: (1) lifelong learning practices and leisure-time exercise habits of academic and community-based physicians; and (2) associations of leisure-time exercise with work engagement, exhaustion, and professional life satisfaction. Methods: Using an online survey, quantitative data were collected from physicians practicing in Canada. The survey contained validated scales of physician lifelong learning, leisure-time exercise, work engagement, work exhaustion, and professional life satisfaction. Descriptive, chi-square, t-test, and correlational analyses were performed. Results: Physicians (n=57) reported moderately high levels of lifelong learning, with no significant difference between academic and community-based physicians. To stay current in their practice, the majority of physicians reported exchanging ideas/asking colleagues and searching databases as questions arise (>90%), followed by engaging in clinical teaching and attending conferences and meetings of professional organizations (>80%). Watching podcasts and webinars was the least preferred lifelong learning activity (<50%). With respect to leisure-time exercise habits, more community-based physicians reported engaging in mild and/or moderate forms of exercising, whereas more academic physicians reported engaging in strenuous exercising in a typical week. Correlational analyses revealed that physicians' leisure-time exercise scores were positively correlated with professional life satisfaction (r = 0.25; p = 0.058) and work engagement (r = 0.29; p = 0.028) and negatively correlated with work exhaustion (r = -0.34; p = 0.01). Conclusions: Irrespective of the practice type, physicians tend to engage in lifelong learning activities that offer in-person interactions with colleagues and trainees. Regular participation in leisure-time exercise appears to enhance physicians' professional wellbeing. As such, these activities and habits should be encouraged, supported, and promoted within institutional culture and health systems in general.
Highlights
In order to provide quality patient care, physicians need to maintain currency with new evidence, technological advances, and guidelines that are continuously being developed and updated
Professional organizations have identified lifelong learning as a core competency in health professions and require practitioners to be engaged in continuing professional development (CPD) (American Association of Colleges of Nursing and Association of American Medical Colleges, 2010; Interprofessional Education Collaborative Expert Panel, 2011; Frank, Snell and Sherbino, 2015)
Hojat and colleagues defined lifelong learning as "an attribute involving a set of self-initiated activities and information-seeking skills with sustained motivation to learn and the ability to recognize one’s own learning needs." (Hojat, Veloski and Gonnella, 2009, p. 1066) Lifelong learning is a recognized indicator of physician professionalism (Hojat, Veloski and Gonnella, 2009; American Association of Colleges of Nursing and Association of American Medical Colleges, 2010; Interprofessional Education Collaborative Expert Panel, 2011; Frank, Snell and Sherbino, 2015) and needs to be cultivated as early as in medical training (Babenko et al, 2017)
Summary
In order to provide quality patient care, physicians need to maintain currency with new evidence, technological advances, and guidelines that are continuously being developed and updated To this end, professional organizations have identified lifelong learning as a core competency in health professions and require practitioners to be engaged in continuing professional development (CPD) (American Association of Colleges of Nursing and Association of American Medical Colleges, 2010; Interprofessional Education Collaborative Expert Panel, 2011; Frank, Snell and Sherbino, 2015). Despite the well-recognized health benefits of physical activity and the importance of leisure for quality of life, research has shown that physicians’ exercise habits start to deteriorate upon commencing medical training and decline over the course of their careers (Gnanendran et al, 2011; Klein, Guenther and Ross, 2016). While professional organizations do encourage physicians to engage in physical activity and leisure-time exercise, these are not formal professional requirements
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