title: Well prepared for work? Junior doctors' self-assessment after medical education.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Apart from objective exam results, the overall feeling of preparedness is important for a successful transition process from being a student to becoming a qualified doctor. This study examines the association between self-assessed deficits in medical skills and knowledge and the feeling of preparedness of junior doctors in order to determine which aspects of medical education need to be addressed in more detail in order to improve the quality of this transition phase and in order to increase patient safety.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cohort of 637 doctors with up to two years of clinical work experience was included in this analysis and was asked about the overall feeling of preparedness and self-assessed deficits with regard to clinical knowledge and skills. Three logistic regression models were used to identify medical skills which predict the feeling of preparedness.
  
  
  RESULTS
  All in all, about 60% of the participating doctors felt poorly prepared for post-graduate training. Self-assessed deficits in ECG interpretation (aOR: 4.39; 95% CI: 2.012-9.578), treatment and therapy planning (aOR: 3.42; 95% CI: 1.366-8.555), and intubation (aOR: 2.10; 95% CI: 1.092-4.049) were found to be independently associated with the overall feeling of preparedness in the final regression model.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Many junior doctors in Germany felt inadequately prepared for being a doctor. With regard to the contents of medical curricula, our results show that more emphasis on ECG-interpretation, treatment and therapy planning and intubation is required to improve the feeling of preparedness of medical graduates.
authors: Institute of Occupational and Social Medicine, Medical Faculty, RWTH Aachen University, Pauwelsstrasse 30, D-52074 Aachen, Germany. eochsmann@ukaachen.de
authors: Elke B
authors: EB
authors: Ochsmann
authors: Ulrike
authors: U
authors: Zier
authors: Hans
authors: H
authors: Drexler
authors: Klaus
authors: K
authors: Schmid
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002983:Clinical Competence; D015331:Cohort Studies; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003479:Curriculum; D004501:Education, Medical / Q000592:standards*; D004521:Educational Measurement; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D015233:Models, Statistical; D016017:Odds Ratio; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012647:Self-Assessment; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires