ISSUE 6, DEC 2023/JAN 2024 VOLUME 35, NO. 6 Canberra Doctor is proudly brought to you by the AMA (ACT) Limited CIRCULATION: 1,900 IN ACT & REGION
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Trainee survey signals improvements at Canberra's hospitals Canberra’s trainee doctors are reporting greater satisfaction with their workplaces compared to previous years, albeit less than the national average, a major survey shows. The results of the Medical Board of Australia and AHPRA’s annual Medical Training Survey, now in its fifth year, are likely to bring relief to managers at the territory’s two training hospitals after repeated poor results in previous years. This year’s survey found 73% of Canberra-based junior doctors would recommend their current workplace as a place to train – a significant improvement from the
previous two years, when only 60% would recommend their workplace. Although still lower than the national rate (79%), the results suggest training conditions are improving for Canberra’s junior doctors. Dr Betty Ge, chair of AMA ACT’s Council of Doctors in Training commented: “It’s fantastic to see some improvement after years of persistently low performance compared with the national standard.” “Canberra Health Services (CHS) deserves some credit for the changes they’re making to try to improve the culture and working conditions, however, we’re still below that national standard and so there remains a lot more work that needs to be done.” Dr Ge noted that Canberra still lagged the national cohort on
data pertaining to the quality of clinical supervision and teaching sessions, and on weekly hours worked. On average, ACT trainees worked 47.2 hours a week, compared with a national average of 45.6 hours. Some 455 trainee doctors in the ACT responded to this year’s survey, out of a total 22,337 respondents nationally. The data were collected between 9 August and 8 October 2023. Most of the ACT respondents were specialist non-GP trainees (43%), followed by prevocational and unaccredited trainees (28%). Only 6% were interns, 8% were specialist GP trainees and 15% were International Medical Graduates.
73% of ACT trainees would recommend their current workplace as a place to train, compared with only 60% last year.
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