Physicians' learning at work through everyday access to information

Abstract

This article explores access to information through an analysis of sources and strategies as part of workplace learning in a medical context in an African developing country. It focuses on information practices in everyday patient care by a team of senior and junior physicians in a university teaching hospital. A practice‐oriented, interpretative case study approach, in which elements from activity theory, situated learning theory, and communities of practice framework, was developed to form the theoretical basis for the study. The qualitative data from observations and interviews were analyzed with iterative coding techniques. The findings reveal that physicians' learning through everyday access to medical information is enacted by, embedded in, and sustained as a part of the work activity itself. The findings indicate a stable community of practice with traits of both local and general medical conventions, in which the value of used sources and strategies remains relatively uncontested, strongly based on formally and informally sanctioned and legitimized practices. Although the present study is particular and context specific, the results indicate a more generally plausible conclusion; the complementary nature of different information sources and strategies underscores that access to information happens in a context in which solitary sources alone make little difference.