Professional profile of National Health Service physicians in Greece and their self-expressed training needs

Continuing medical education is not yet mandatory in Greece, but an increasing number of training courses is becoming available. In recent years, 32 training centers have been accredited.

A postal survey of a national sample of 500 National Health Service doctors, weighted towards hospitals with accredited training centers, was conducted. The response rate was 35%.

Respondents, who represented all disciplines and all levels of the hierarchy, were highly qualified, widely read, and active participants in scientific and research activities. Sixty percent had attended training courses in the preceding 5 years. Five choices of desired topics were made, and scores were weighted according to preference.

Handling emergency situations was most popular, followed by specialized therapies and public health topics. Current courses are considered to be too long and would be more attractive if held during working hours. The main difficulty for attendance was heavy workload. The researchers consider that the statutory base for continuing education should be developed in Greece, in line with other countries.