Building an evidence base for cultural change - Medical Board of Australia

Close to 10,000 doctors in training took part in the first Medical Training Survey, which has now closed.

Thanks to every doctor in training who participated – 27 per cent of all doctors in training took the time to share their feedback, which will build the first national, comprehensive picture of medical training in Australia.

We’ll be analysing the data in the months ahead and publishing the survey results in early 2020. As promised, we will prioritise confidentiality and will only publish results with 10 or more responses.

Based on participation rates, we expect to be able to report by state and territory, specialist medical college and type of doctor in training – interns, prevocational and unaccredited trainees, specialist trainees and international medical graduates. Individual hospital level reporting will be possible where there were more than 10 responses for that hospital. We expect this level of detail to build year on year.

The results of the survey will help us to better understand the strengths and weaknesses in medical training across Australia. They will help build an evidence base that we can learn from to improve the culture of medicine. The survey has given trainees a collective voice that we should listen to and act on. Survey results will start to tell an important story about the culture and quality of training, and trigger ideas and discussion of what we can all do to improve it.

Working with our stakeholders to develop and implement the Medical Training Survey has been a highlight of the last two years. Through genuine collaboration and a strong shared commitment, together we developed a robust survey that has the support of a wide range of agencies. The incredible efforts of our partners to raise awareness and promote the survey significantly improved participation rates.

A huge thanks from the Board to every doctor in training who took the time to do the survey, to all our partners across the sector who supported it and to the members of our Medical Training Survey advisory group and steering committee who contributed so much. Stay tuned for survey results in 2020.