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CLINICAL REVIEW: Jeremy C Wyatt and Frank Sullivan Keeping up: learning in the workplace BMJ 2005; 331: 1129-1132 [Full text]

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Learning revolution

Graeme M Mackenzie   (15 November 2005)

Learning revolution 15 November 2005
Graeme M Mackenzie, gp Whitehaven CA28 7RG Send response to journal: Re: Learning revolution	Imagine an average general practice with 5 doctors. Imagine a culture where during each surgery each GP notices, not only somethings he does not know but also things he does know that he suspects are likely not to be known by his colleagues. During the surgery, or after he uses his desktop access to asnwer the questions he does not know the answer to using on line textbooks and Journal searches. In addition he also looks for evidence on the things he thinks he knows. Instantly he is educating himself in a very patient orientated way as well as questioning his existing knoweldge. That is exciting enough but imagine every GP does the same and shares his findings over e mail, linking his questions and knowledge to the patient which prompted him. Every day 5 GPs share patient experience and gleaned medical knowledge. That knowledge, far from being "parochial", is tailored to the practice population. Before e mail and desktop access, it took years to acquire experience and that experience was always polluted by anecdote and the time it took to get to coffee to remember the case and share it. The revolution taking place is that we can much more easily gain vicarious, evidence based experience as a team in less time than it took to look up one case or one text book at a time distant from the patient contact. Competing interests: None declared