Information needs and information seeking in community medical education

Purpose. To investigate information needs and information seeking in primar y care practices serving as educational sites. Method. The authors interviewed 15 community-based primary care physician-p receptors, once when the preceptor was working without a student and once w hen a student was present at the practice (in which case, the student was i nterviewed as well). The interview asked for questions that had arisen duri ng the patient encounter or teaching moment that would need further investi gation. A week after the interview, the authors contacted the preceptors to see whether they had pursued information to answer those questions. Results. The preceptors generated fewer questions when students were presen t (0.42 versus 0.29 per patient). Both preceptors and students most frequen tly had questions pertaining to diagnoses and drug therapy. The proportion of questions pursued by the preceptors decreased when students were present (32% versus 16%). Conclusion. These findings cast light on information needs and seeking in t he context of community medical education. Further research is needed to ex plore variables such as practice size and access to appropriate Web-based i nformation resources.