Self-rated preparedness of Australian prevocational hospital doctors for emergencies.
OBJECTIVE
To determine perceived preparedness of Australian hospital-based prevocational doctors for resuscitation skills and management of emergencies, and to identify differences between doctors who perceive themselves well prepared and those who perceive themselves poorly prepared for emergencies, in demographics and exposure to desired learning methods.


METHODS
Questionnaire consisting of a mix of graded Likert scales and free-text answers distributed to 36 Australian hospitals for secondary distribution to hospital medical officers.


RESULTS
From 2607 questionnaires posted, 470 (18.1%) were returned. Thirty-one per cent (95% confidence interval [CI] 26-35%) felt well prepared for resuscitation and management of emergencies, 41% (CI 37-45%) felt adequately prepared and 28% (CI 24-32%) felt they were not well prepared. Those who felt well prepared reported that they had experienced more exposure to a range of educational methods, including consultant contact, supervisor feedback, clinical skills, high fidelity simulator sessions and unit meetings. Well-prepared and poorly prepared doctors had similar opinions of the usefulness of various learning methods, but the poorly prepared group more frequently expressed a desire for increased exposure to contact with registrars and consultants, clinical skills sessions and hospital and unit meetings. There were no differences in gender, age or country of origin (Australia vs international medical graduates) between those who felt well or poorly prepared.


CONCLUSIONS
Many prevocational hospital doctors feel inadequately prepared for the management of emergencies. Perceived preparedness is associated with more exposure to particular educational activities. Increasing exposure to learning of emergencies in undergraduate and prevocational years could reduce the number of junior doctors who feel poorly prepared for emergencies.
Duns
Glenn
G
St Vincent's Health, Fitzroy, Victoria, Australia. glennduns@gmail.com <glennduns@gmail.com>
Weiland
Tracey
T
Crotty
Brendan
B
Jolly
Brian
B
Cuddihy
Helen
H
Dent
Andrew
A
D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001315:Australia; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002983:Clinical Competence; D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency; D008297:Male; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires