Australian Medical Association Council of Doctors in Training

Using the Medical Training Survey results to better understand specialist trainee experience

The AMA Council of Doctors in Training (AMACDT) has released its second Specialist Trainee Experience Health Check (STHC) using the results of the 2021 Medical Training Survey (MTS) released in February 2022.

The results of the second AMA Specialist Experience Health Check (Health Check) show that while the quality of specialist medical education and training In Australia has weathered the COVID storm well over the past two years, supporting trainees to sit and pass examinations to progress to fellowship is a key area for collaboration and improvement.

Moving forward the AMACDT see a real opportunity for Specialist Medical Colleges and trainees to strengthen collaboration to better share examples of policies and practices (both positive and negative) that have supported trainees to progress through training during the pandemic, and to discuss how this could continue as part of usual practice moving forward.

While trainees reported exams reflecting curriculum as improving (67 per cent), feedback about exam performance is still rated poorly by trainees (34 per cent). The AMACDT would like Specialist Medical Colleges to collaborate and work to improve examination and assessment settings, reflect on how trainees perceive the quality of their training experience, review compliance with the Australian Medical Council (AMC) standards for specialty education and training, and internally review education and training policies, with a particular focus on the areas for improvement.

The purpose of the 2021 AMA STHC is threefold:

• Provide a comparison of the training experience between different specialty training programs and identify areas of excellent experience as well as areas for improvement.
• Compare training experience outcomes within the same specialty training program between 2019 (pre-COVID) and 2021, to investigate if any areas have improved or worsened over time.
• Identify how COVID-19 is perceived to have negatively affected the training experience across different specialty training programs.

The AMACDT will use the 2021 STHC results to inform its advocacy on improvements to training programs and support structures. The AMACDT is encouraging all trainees to take this year’s Medical Training Survey which opened on 1 August, 2022.

You can read the full report here.