Table 3a.

Barriers to Ambulatory Care Network Physician Participation in Research Identified in Both Survey and Focus Groups

SurveyParticipant's Statements from Focus Group
ItemPhysicians Who Agree (%)*
Lack of time/competing demands for time92.0
  • Am I interested in research? I am really interested in research. Am I interested in being reimbursed for research? I am, but right now I have only 5 clinical sessions a week and one of those I precept the residents. So I only see patients 4 sessions a week. I don't think I can go down to 3 and still call myself a primary care doctor so easily, or I don't know if I am ready to go down to 3. And so, again, we wear so many hats and, yes, I would love to wear another hat. (IM)

  • The largest barrier is basically time. There is no time to do any of this, or it's going to be in your sleep. …it's been going on for 3 years, and it's difficult. (FM)

  • Coming from residency, if you haven't gone into a program that fosters research you don't have the skills in order to write grants or be the principal investigator of a research project, …unless you've had a mentor who's actually taught you how to do that, so adequate skills or training…. (IM)

My lack of appropriate training80.0
  • We don't really understand what it entails. In terms of what do we have to put in to it really … and how much do we want to put in? Do we want to be the PIs, or do we want to be involved in projects with other people that are staying up until 3:00 in the morning so we don't have to? (FM)

  • And not getting reimbursed for it makes a huge difference (IM)

Inadequate compensation for my time79.2
  • It's [the grant] been going on for 3 years, and it's difficult. My time is not bought out; it's in kind. So this is on top of all of the things that I'm doing. (FM)

  • * Percent of participants selecting strongly agree or agree in response to statement; only statements that >50% participants rated as strongly agree or agree are included.

  • PI, primary investigator; IM, internal medicine; FM, family medicine.