EN STUDIE AV AT-LÄKARES INFORMATIONSSÖKNINGSBETEENDE I OLIKA PRAKTIKER

Sammanfattning: Abstract Information and information seeking have always been important parts of society. How behavioural patterns of information seeking manifest themselves are partly due to individual prerequisites and partly due to the practice where the seeking of information is conducted. The aim of this study is to investigate a group of newly examined physicians? experiences of information seeking behaviour in their educational practice and in their professional practice. The two practices are related to each other but still very different. This makes it interesting to study whether individuals? information seeking behaviour changes when they move from the educational practice to the professional. The theoretical framework for the current study is a socio-cultural one. This perspective's aim is to gain a better understanding of the interaction between the collective and the individual person. Through this perspective we want to create an understanding for physicians? information seeking behaviour seen within the social practice of which it is a part of. The study is based on seven qualitative interviews with physicians who are making their first professional experiences. The interviews are focused on the individuals? experiences of information seeking in the educational practice and in the professional practice. The results of this study show that behavioural patterns of information seeking is contextually bounded, even if the behaviour within one context in some cases are transferred into another. Different context causes different needs of information. This is partly due to the character of the practices and partly due to the individual person's role in the practice. The informants have difficulties to limit their information seeking in the beginning of their education. This problem is fading away with time, partly because the characters of encountered problems are changing. The sources of information are also changing when the individuals move on from the educational practice to the professional one. The differences between information seeking within different practices lies firstly in the responsibility that comes with being a physician, but also on the practices limited frames.