25 Jul 2019

Australia’s doctors in training will soon have the chance to tell medical educators, employers, governments and regulators what they think about medical training in Australia.

The Medical Training Survey (MTS) – set to run from 1 August to 30 September 2019 – will ask Australia’s 30,000+ doctors in training about the quality of their training and identify issues that could impact on patient safety, including environment and culture, unacceptable behaviours and the quality of supervision.

The MTS will be anonymous, confidential and accessible online. Survey results will be used to improve medical training in Australia and be reported publicly, while protecting individual privacy.

‘We want every doctor in training in Australia to do the survey, so we get a clear picture of what is going well and how the training provided now can be improved,’ said Medical Board Chair, Dr Anne Tonkin.

‘The survey will be good for trainees in the short term and good for patient safety in the longer term, as we strengthen the training of doctors who provide medical care to us all,’ Dr Tonkin said.

It has been a team effort to develop the MTS, with doctors in training, specialist colleges, employers, educators, the AMA and the AMC, working closely with health practitioner regulators to develop the MTS. 

The survey is funded and coordinated by the Medical Board of Australia and AHPRA, and administered at arms’ length by an independent survey provider, EY Sweeney, which will analyse the information and develop reports. 

The Board and AHPRA will not receive any information that identifies individuals. Results will not be published when there are fewer than 10 participants.

The survey will be open to all doctors in training in Australia. This includes interns, hospital medical officers, resident medical officers, non-accredited trainees, postgraduate trainees, principal house officers, registrars, specialist trainees and international medical graduates. Career medical officers who intend to undertake further postgraduate training in medicine can also participate. 

While some specialist colleges and jurisdictions already survey their trainees, the MTS will bring together the views of trainees from every medical discipline and every state and territory. The questions in the MTS draw on topics and issues covered in existing surveys. 

‘For the first time in Australia, the MTS will start to build a comprehensive, national picture of the strengths and weaknesses of medical training across states and territories, medical disciplines and stages of training. We will have a clear and comparative baseline for continuing improvements,’ Dr Tonkin said. 

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