Junior hospital doctors' views on their training in the UK

To ascertain the views of senior house officers and registrars on the educational and training component of their posts, a questionnaire was sent to all full-time doctors working in training posts in general and/or geriatric medicine at three district general and three teaching hospitals. Completed questionnaires were received from 64 (61%) of 105 doctors who were contacted. Most had a careers counsellor or tutor, although less than two-thirds thought they had benefited from this arrangement. The majority of doctors attended at least two medical tutorials or meetings per week; most wanted to attend more but were unable to because of other work commitments. Supervision by more senior staff on the ward was deemed by most to be satisfactory, but less so in outpatient clinics. Overall, one-third of doctors thought that training was inadequate and three-quarters wanted a greater amount of formal education. The majority of junior doctors' time was spent on routine work and most considered 'training' constituted less than 10% of their working time. Doctors in training require more sessions designated as educational, with protected time to attend these.