Doctors in training to have their say in 2020 Medical Training Survey

03 Aug 2020

The 2020 Medical Training Survey (MTS) will track the impact of COVID-19 on medical training, through the eyes of doctors in training.

The MTS will open in early August in line with the annual medical registration renewal period.

The MTS is a longitudinal survey that tracks the quality of medical training. In 2020, there are questions about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on medical training.

Questions about the culture of medicine have also been updated to provide a clearer picture of issues around bullying, harassment and discrimination. Otherwise, the bulk of the questions will be the same as in 2019, enabling year on year comparisons.

All 2020 questions and the 2019 results are available online at https://medicaltrainingsurvey.gov.au/. Results are detailed in reports by specialty and geography and an online data-dashboard enables users to create tailored reports.

Results from the 2019 and 2020 surveys will start to build a strong evidence base about the quality of training in Australia. Year on year results will, over time, fill gaps in reportable data caused by privacy protections and small numbers of trainees in some areas.

Headline results from 2019 indicate there’s a lot going well in medical training in Australia. As the evidence base about medical training in Australia strengthens with successive surveys, agencies across the health sector will use the results to continually improve training.

The MTS is designed to promote quality improvement and is supported by trainees and a wide range of health sector stakeholders. Stringent privacy controls make it safe and confidential for trainees to take part.

‘We’re keen to hear from as many trainees as possible about their experience of medical training,’ said Chair of the Medical Board of Australia, Dr Anne Tonkin.

‘We’ve also made some technical adjustments to make it easier for trainees to find the link to the survey and, we hope, take 10 minutes from their busy schedule to share their experience of training,’ Dr Tonkin said.

All doctors in training in Australia can do the survey. This includes interns, hospital medical officers, resident medical officers, non-accredited trainees, postgraduate trainees, principal house officers, registrars, specialist trainees and international medical graduates (with provisional or limited registration). Career medical officers who intend to undertake further postgraduate training in medicine can also participate.

There are five versions of the survey, tailored to different groups of trainees; interns, prevocational and unaccredited trainees, international medical graduates (with provisional or limited registration), specialist GP trainees and specialist non-GP trainees.

For more information

• For media enquiries: (03) 8708 9200.
• Lodge an online enquiry.
• Find out more about Ahpra and the National Boards.