QUALITATIVE ASSESSMENT OF INFORMATION-SEEKING BEHAVIOR AND LEARNING PREFERENCES AMONG POSTGRADUATE PHYSICIAN ASSISTANTS AND NURSE PRACTITIONERS

Purpose: Understanding clinicians' information-seeking behavior is critical for primary training curricular decisions and continuing professional development.   How, and from which sources healthcare providers seek information and how they integrate new data into practice, provides important additional knowledge. These data will also have a direct effect on one’s ability to perform optimal evidence-based patient care.

Method: A ten-year literature search was performed within the PubMed, EmBase, and CINAHL databases.

Results of this search supported the design, testing, validation, and distribution of a 10-question survey tool to a randomized cohort of Physician Assistants (PAs) and Nurse Practitioners (NPs). Demographic data was matched for each group and questions were designed to answer respective learning preferences and assimilation of new knowledge into clinical process. Result: Surveys were emailed to an audience of 7,914 PAs & NPs; with an opt-in return rate of 48%. Aggregate sample size of 3,811 practitioners (PAs = 1,872 / NPs = 1.939) facilitated descriptive analysis for both groups. Both groups spend 3 or 4 hours/week searching the online literature; with a majority of both (58.4% PAs; 53.6% NPs) using Google search engines as a first step for finding answers and/or information. Patient -centered questions, asked weekly, were primarily within the realm of “Treatment Guidelines” (PAs 21.6%) or “Other” (NPs 23.2%) domains. The "Most Useful" sources for keeping abreast of advances in care were Clinical Practice Guidelines (PAs & NPs 94.4%), Continuing Education Courses (PAs 95.2%; NPs 91.1%), & Peer-reviewed Journals (PAs 87.3%; NPs 95.4%). When queried as to the factors that were "Very Influential" for adopting new advances, Clinical Practice Guidelines, again, had a substantial influence (PAs 93.7%; NPs 96.8%). Peer-reviewed Journals were the preferred formats for self-directed learning (PAs 90.5%; NPs 87.3%), but Online Archived Courses were favored by PAs over NPs (76% vs 47.1%, respectively). Barriers to optimal information assimilation were similar for both groups. The issue of limited availability of free valuable resources was a common retort. 

Conclusion: Despite philosophical differences in training, PAs and NPs have some common behaviors with respect to information-seeking behavior. Conversely, striking differences do exist between these two non-physician providers. Noteworthy is that the general approach to continuing educational design does not take into account these differences & preferences noted for the first time, here.