Keeping professionally updated: Perceived coping and CME profiles among physicians

The aim of this study was to investigate physicians' coping with the increasing body of medical knowledge and the relation between this coping and their continuing medical education (CME) activities. A cross-sectional postal survey among a randomized sample of 1476 Norwegian physicians was conducted. The main outcome measure was a self-reported ability to obtain sufficient information to keep updated in their daily work. The relative risks of being a coper are given as odds ratios (ORs) for the categories of seven hypothetical predictor variables. The response rate was 70.5%, with 68.5% of the physicians reporting that they are able to obtain the sufficient information for keeping updated. In a multiple logistic regression analysis, being a male (OR: 1.75, 95% confidence interval CI: 1.25–2.45), attending conferences or meetings more than 15 days per year (OR: 2.69, CI: 1.62–4.48), and reading medical literature more than 2 hours per week (OR: 1.97, CI: 1.33–2.91) were significant predictors of such coping. Physicians who managed to cope with the medical information had a lower level of emotional distress (OR: 2.00, CI: 1.21–3.30) and a higher level of job satisfaction (OR: 1.55, CI: 1.14–2.12) than noncopers. Physicians who give CME activities a high priority are more likely to regard themselves sufficiently updated than others. The ability to cope with the increasing flow of medical information is clearly related to doctors' well-being and job satisfaction.