FIRST-YEAR FAMILY MEDICINE RESIDENTS USE OF COMPUTERS - KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ATTITUDES

Objective: To identify the computer knowledge, skills and attitudes of first-year family medicine residents. Design: Cross-sectional survey of family medicine residents during the academic year 1993-94; samplin g began in July 1933 and ended in October 1993. Setting: Canada. Parti cipants: All 727 first-year family medicine residents, of whom 433 (60 %) responded. Outcome measures: Previous computer experience or traini ng, current use, barriers to use, and comfort with and attitudes regar ding computers. Results: There was no difference in age or sex between the respondents and all first-year family medicine residents in Canad a. French-speaking respondents from Quebec were underrepresented (p < 0.001). Only 56 respondents (13%) felt extremely or very comfortable w ith computer use. The most commonly cited barriers to obtaining comput er training were lack of time (243 respondents [56%]) and the high cos t of computers (214 [49%]) but not lack of interest (69 [16%]). Most r esidents wanted more computer training (367 [85%]) and felt that compu ter training should be a mandatory component of family medicine traini ng programs (308 [71%]). Conclusions: Computer knowledge and skills an d comfort with computer use appear low among first-year family medicin e residents in Canada, and barriers to acquisition of computer knowled ge are impressive. Computer training should become an integral part of family medicine training in Canada, and user-friendly applicable comp uter systems are needed.