[Physicians' attitudes concerning guidelines. An empirical survey in neurologic clinics]

Guidelines gain importance for medical services. Their perception and use by physicians does not only rely on their attitudes towards guidelines, but also on other parameters of influence.

to assess hospital physicians's attitudes concerning clinical guidelines and physician- and hospital- related factors of influence.

multicenter survey with 99 junior and senior registrars from 30 departments of neurology (taking regional random samples).

A majority of physicians regarded guidelines as a means of quality improvement and medical education. However, there were no generally positive or negative attitudes, but the physicians differentiated between the individual and the health system level. These patterns of attitudes did not depend upon aspects of the respective departments (such as size, internal guidelines, access to sources of information) and did not vary significantly between hospitals. Instead, there was a marked influence of personality traits on individual opinions concerning guideline utility. Senior registrars, less team-oriented physicians, younger physicians and the more prestige-motivated expressed positive attitudes. On the other hand, a sceptical and more negative attitude was found with professionals who expressed strong team orientation and scientific interest.

The overall positive attitude is probably related to the identification of guideline users with their authors and also to the their present status as non-binding recommendations. The independence of attitudes from hospital characteristics, especially the existence of internal guidelines, may indicate either voluntary guideline use or rather a low impact of guidelines as management instruments or frequently used tools. The potential of guidelines for medical education does not seem to be fully utilised.