Surgical audit: the junior doctors' viewpoint

Clinical audit is now an integral part of surgical practice. The Royal College of Surgeons of England has stated that all members of the clinical team should participate in the clinical audit.(1) Junior surgical doctors from the West Midlands Region were interviewed, using a questionnaire, to investigate their attitudes towards audit. Sixty-eight junior doctors were interviewed from six hospitals. Sixty-one (90%) felt that audit was necessary in routine surgical practice, 21 (31%) had presented data at audit meetings and only three (4%) were allocated study periods to prepare for their audit topics. In those hospitals in which all elective work was cancelled, there was a higher attendance rate at audit meetings by junior doctors. Many junior doctors felt that they lacked direction from senior colleagues and had not received any formal training in clinical audit. Clinical audit should become part of undergraduate and postgraduate medical training and junior doctors need to take a more active role in clinical audit.