CONTINUED PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND

INTERNET TOOLS IN EDUCATION OF HEALTH WORKERS

Zoran Stevic

University in Belgrade, Technical Faculty in Bor, VJ 12, 19210 Bor, Serbia

Dubravka Nikolovski

Institute of Public Health Pancevo, Pasterova 2, 26000 Pancevo, Serbia

Branislava Matic

Institute of Public Health of Serbia “Dr Milan Jovanovic Batut”, Dr Subotica 5, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia

Keywords: Internet tools, CME, Health workers.

Abstract: The Objective of this paper was to describe the current status of continued professional development of

healthcare workers in Serbia and knowledge of Internet tools being a support to their education. A cross-

sectional descriptive study was applied utilizing an interviewer-administered questionnaire. The sample

consisted of 201 health workers from two Serbian districts. Results show that 27 (13.4%) had no permanent

Internet access. At Internet based continued medical education courses participated 45 (22.4%) health

workers and only 10 (5.0%) used electronic services of Serbian Library Consortium for Coordinated

Acquisition. In any time of their professional life 155 (77.1%) had never wrote any paper. There were 73

(36.3%) users of social Internet network, 33 (16.4%) were in contact with telemedicine, 14 (7.0%) heard

something about distance e-health, 184 (91.5%) thought that has insufficient computer skills and 15 (7.5%)

has no skills. Healthcare professionals in Serbia use mostly the scientific meetings for CME but without

active participation. The research shows a great need for development of computer skills, Internet tools

knowledge and inclusion in Serbian Library Consortium for Coordinated Acquisition.

1 INTRODUCTION

Serbian Medical Chamber (SMCh) was founded in

1901 when it had 46 members, disrupting its

activities after II WW in 1945. In 2006 SMCh has

resumed its existence with more than 27000

members. Until 2010 it wasn’t obligatory to attend

Continuing Medical Education (CME). This lack of

obligation counted for The Chamber of Nurses and

Health Technicians of Serbia, as well. CME keeps

health workers updated with the new developments,

treatment methods and approaches to health issues

(Haruna, 2004). CME for health workers is a process

in which the competencies of health workers

continue to be maintained, improved and new ones

acquired, following the completion of basic training.

CME can be accessed through workshops, seminars,

clinical audits, formal lectures, multimedia

programs, telemedicine, support supervision etc.

With development of Internet tools, the accessibility

to CME and the exchange of scientific health

information became easier. This has essential

importance for education and research and a direct

impact on the development of a society (Kupryte,

2005).

Serbia is a country in transition, meaning that the

national health reform is not yet finished. The

Ministry of Science and Technological Development

has made an important step forward in enabling

researchers in diferent scientific fields, together with

health workers, to approach the scientific

information easily. It pays annual subscriptions for

the most wanted scientific services and sources.

Since 2001, Serbian Library Consortium for

Coordinated Acquisition named KoBSON exists in

551

Stevic Z., Nikolovski D. and Matic B..

CONTINUED PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND INTERNET TOOLS IN EDUCATION OF HEALTH WORKERS.

DOI: 10.5220/0003153605510554

In Proceedings of the International Conference on Health Informatics (HEALTHINF-2011), pages 551-554

ISBN: 978-989-8425-34-8

 2011 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)

Serbia as a member of Electronic Information for

Libraries (eIFL.net), an umbrella organization.

Nowdays, it is the best e-resource for quality

scientific data in Serbia (Electronic Information for

Libraries). Development of the eIFL.net started as a

project whose underlying idea was that the exchange

of ideas, knowledge, and information between

scientists are the basic need for science and society

development. In the 1990s, library development and

modernization were very fast in the post-socialist

countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The high

subscription costs, along with little awareness of the

electronic alternative to print subscriptions,

prevented these countries from accessing most of

international academic journals and databases.

Creation of National Library consortia in member

countries play a fundamental role in the coordination

of access, promotion, training, fund raising, and

payments for resources (Muula, 2004). At present,

Serbia has a leading role in accessing and

dissemination of scientific information in South

Eastern Europe (Ballantyne, 2006), with 35000

scientific journals in electronic and print version

(KoBSON). Serbian National Library held public

educations about KoBSON services for institutes

and researchers, but not for health workers in rural

and distance urban areas.

Objective of this paper was to describe the

current status of continued professional development

of healthcare workers and the knowledge of Internet

tools which could support their education.

2 MATERIALS AND METHODS

A cross-sectional descriptive study used an

interviewer-administered questionnaire. The sample

consisted of 201 health workers from urban zones in

two Serbian districts (South Banat and Bor): 82

(40.8%) nurses and sanitary technicians, 24 (11.9%)

nurses and sanitary technicians with college

education and 95 (47.3%) medical doctors (Figure

1). Both districts are averagely developed with good

coverage of Internet performances and availability.

Figure 1: Percentage distribution of participants.

3 RESULTS

The study participants were from primary health

care 70 (34.8%), secondary health care 125 (62.2%)

and institute of public health 6 (3.0%). There were

69 (34.3%) workers in surgical departments, 32

(15.9%) from internal departments, 16 (8.0%) from

pediatrics, 44 (21.9%) in preventive medicine and 40

(19.9%) other specialties.

Internet access at work had 48 (23.9%), at home

167 (83.1%), both at work and home 40 (19.9%), at

the other place 4 (2.0%) and 27 (13.4%) had no

permanent access. In some electronic continued

medical education course participated 45 (22.4%)

health workers, 125 (62.2%) searched Internet for

work. Only 10 (5.0%) used KoBSON libraries

electronic access (Figure 2), and from these 191

(95.0%) who didn’t used it, 86 (42.8%) had not even

heard about KoBSON (Figure 3). There were 95

(47.3%) in contact with medical news within the last

12 months: 16 (7.9%) wrote a professional article,

79 (39.3%) participated in scientific meeting, 13

(6.5%) solved tests of e-CME, and 11 (5.5%) had

some other medical news access (Table 1).

During all of their professional life-time, only 2

(0.9%) have written a book, 6 (2.7%) had more than

5 scientific or professional papers, 49 (24.4%) wrote

at least one paper for scientific meeting, but 155

(77.1%) had never written any paper (Figure 4).

Figure 2: KoBSON Web portal.

Figure 3: Percentage distribution of KoBSON users.

HEALTHINF 2011 - International Conference on Health Informatics

552

There were 73 (36.3%) users of social Internet

network, and 33 (33.7%) of them used it at least

once for business purpose. 33 (16.4%) were in

contact with telemedicine, 14 (7.0%) heard

something about distance e-health, 4 (2.0%) used

interactive internet tools for education, 184 (91.5%)

thought that has insufficient computer skills, 15

(7.5%) has no skills, 1 (0.5%) was good with

computer and 1 (0.5%) excellent. Intention to create

some kind of CME had 6(3.0%) participants, 19

(9.5) had intention, but had no experience, 45 (22.4)

had intention, but didn’t satisfy conditions.

Participants state about needs for CME were that

they need information about researches 41 (20.4%),

diagnostics 66 (32.8%), therapy 60 (29.8%),

guidelines 62 (30.8%), medical news 116 (57.7%)

and other topics 10 (5.0%). There were 41 (20.4%)

participants who prefer “traditional” presentation of

CME, 11 (5.5%) on-line, 97 (48.3) both “traditional”

and on-line and 50 (24.9%) didn’t know what to

choose.

Figure 4: Professional activity of participants.

4 DISCUSSION

AND CONCLUSIONS

There are statistical significance differences between

doctors and nurses in all questions except the use of

social networks and interest to create a CME

program. Doctors have more knowledge about

computers and they are more included in CME

activities, but not enough. The percentage in both

groups is low counting the information about

KoBSON, skills for writing a professional article,

participating in scientific meetings, usage of

telemedicine or some other internet tools in patient

environment.

In countries under the eiFL.net, there are great

differences in services they offer: some with a large

variety of services, such as in Serbia, to those with a

more informal structure where libraries were

brought together for the single purpose of jointly

licensing electronic journals. Undoubtedly, it is a

fact that the economic development of a country

depends heavily on its scientific strength and ability

to resolve problems in areas such as public health,

infectious disease, environmental management and

industrial progress (Kirsop, 2005), but precursor of

development is computer literacy, which in Serbia is

at a very low level in the working population.

Internet resources offer possibility for a dramatic

improvement in access to pertinent information, so

Serbia and other developing countries could

experience huge potential benefit, besides the rise in

the overall quality of education in schools and

universities (Brooks, 2005; Weller, 2005) Although

English – Language Proficiency has not been

analyzed, in this paper, but regarding the problems

occurring at our CME workshops, this is one of key

reasons why there are not more Serbian articles in

medical journals.

Table 1: CME and Internet tools.

CONTINUED PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND INTERNET TOOLS IN EDUCATION OF HEALTH

WORKERS

553

Healthcare professionals in Serbia use mostly the

scientific meetings for CME but without active

participation. A great need exists for computer skills

development, Internet tools knowledge and inclusion

in KoBSON libraries, offering a free access to

medical journals for researchers and healthcare

workers, which are now becoming more available

due to the engagement of Serbian Ministry of

Science and Technological Development. These

CME programs have already achieved accreditation

from Serbian Health Council and started

successfully.

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