Factors predictive of successful learning in postgraduate medical education.

Full Abstract

PURPOSE: To establish which personal and contextual factors are predictive of successful outcomes in postgraduate medical education. METHOD: We performed a follow-up study of 118 doctors on a postgraduate occupational health training programme on the management of mental health problems. The following personal and contextual variables were measured as potential predictors of outcome: gender; age; years of experience as a doctor; university of graduation; learning style (Kolb); present employer (occupational health service), and educational format (problem-based or lecture-based). The main outcome measures were: scores on knowledge tests consisting of true/false and open answer questions, and performance in practice based on self-report and performance indicators. To determine the effect of potential predictive factors univariate analyses of variance and repeated measurement analysis of variance was applied. RESULTS: The mean scores of knowledge (P < 0.001) and performance (P = 0.001) of the participants increased after the educational programme. After multivariate analysis female gender was positively related to accruements in both knowledge and performance (both P < 0.05), independently of the influence of other factors. Accommodator learning style showed a relation with knowledge increase (P = 0.05), but had no influence on performance (P = 0.79). The problem-based educational format yielded a better performance outcome (P = 0.05), but had no influence on knowledge tests (P = 0.31). CONCLUSION: Gender and learning style were found to be related to an increase in knowledge. Gender was also found to be related to improvement in performance after a postgraduate medical education programme. We found no interactions with course design (i.e. problem-based or non problem-based learning formats), but further research could reveal other cues, suggesting practical consequences of student characteristics for course design in postgraduate training.

Author information

Author/s: Smits, P B A (PB); Verbeek, J H A M (JH); Nauta, M C E (MC); Ten Cate, Th J (TJ); Metz, J C M (JC); van Dijk, F J H (FJ);

Affiliation: Netherlands School of Occupational Health, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. p.smits(-atsign-)nspoh.nl

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Medical education (Med Educ), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2004-Jul; vol 38 (issue 7) : pp 758-66

Dates: Created 2004/06/17; Completed 2004/08/12; Revised 2006/11/15;

PMID: 15200400, status: MEDLINE (last retrieved date: 2/18/2009)

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