LAUSR

Dear Editor Dermatology consultations, a key part of the workload of a practising General Practitioner (GP), have been increasing due to an ageing population, increasing incidences of skin cancer and rising expectations about appearance. Studies suggest that GP trainees find skin problems challenging and proposed a need for more and better targeted GP education [1]. Presently there is a bewildering array of educational material available for delivering Continuing Professional Development (CPD) to GPs, ranging from YouTube tutorials and e-learning initiatives through to traditional lecture-based teaching. However, no data currently exist regarding general practitioners’ preferred learning methods (LM) for dermatology. We aimed to determine GPs’ preferences regarding LM in Dermatology to optimise delivery and match CPD to learning preferences for GPs. An anonymous self-completed survey including the learning styles inventory (LSI) was distributed to GPs attending three CPD Dermatology study days in London, organised by one regional and two national bodies. The LSI (Table S1) listed six active learner-centered learning methods (ALMS) and three passive teacher-centred learning methods (PLM), validated by expert classification in literature [2]. ALM included interactive lectures (with voting or polling devices), consultant-to-GP CPD, GP-to-GP CPD (peer learning), live demonstration (bedside learning), small group in-person teaching, and online live question and answer formats (Webinar). PLM included large group traditional didactic lectures, online videos (YouTube) and audio podcasts. Respondents were asked to rate each item on a Likert scale based on their preferences for engaging in that activity, from 1 ‘dislike very much’ to 10 ‘liked very much’. Respondents who indicated they had ‘never tried’ a LM were not included in the analysis. The responses were analysed using SPSS. Analysis of variance and a two-sample t-test were used where appropriate. A P-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. 205 completed questionnaires were obtained. The three highest-rated LM were ALM: consultant-to-GP teaching (mean ± standard error: 8.05 ± 0.13), live demonstration (7.93 ± 0.17), and interactive lectures (7.75 ± 0.14). The three lowest rated LM included audio podcasts (4.89 ± 0.18), online live question and answer formats (5.39 ± 0.18), and online videos (5.98 ± 0.18). The mean score for ALM (7.36 ± 0.07) was higher than for PLM (5.93 ± 0.10), although not statistically significant (p = 0.114).