A tale of two colleges: do specialist trainees receive adequate hospital-based training?
BACKGROUND
Both medical and surgical trainees have a dual reliance on their specialist training college and their respective teaching hospitals to maintain standards in teaching and training. Although guidelines are in place for the administration of this teaching, hospital-based teaching has been minimally regulated. A review of trainee satisfaction with current levels of hospital-based training was performed, both to reflect the thoughts of trainees themselves and to highlight specific areas requiring improvement.


METHODS
Sixty-four basic specialist trainees (44 surgical [BSTs] and 20 physician [BPTs]) from all of the major Melbourne metropolitan teaching hospitals completed an anonymous survey.


RESULTS
Surgical trainees considered all areas of hospital-based training to be deficient, with overall dissatisfaction significantly greater for BSTs compared with BPTs (P=0.046). A requirement for increased hospital-based training was similarly greater for BSTs (P=0.0072).


CONCLUSIONS
The study confirms the need for a change in the regulation and administration of hospital-based teaching for surgical trainees.
Department of Surgery, Royal Melbourne Hospital, Grattan St, Parkville, Melbourne, VIC 3050, Australia. warrenrozen@hotmail.com
Warren M
WM
Rozen
Elan D
ED
Kaplan
Katharine J
KJ
Drummond
Robert J
RJ
Millar
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002982:Clinical Clerkship / Q000592:standards*; D003625:Data Collection; D004501:Education, Medical; D013502:General Surgery / Q000193:education; D006784:Hospitals, Teaching / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency / Q000592:standards*; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D015397:Program Evaluation; D013038:Specialization; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D014739:Victoria