A tale of two colleges: do specialist trainees receive adequate hospital-based training?

Both medical and surgical trainees have a dual reliance on their specialist training college and their respective teaching hospitals to maintain standards in teaching and training. Although guidelines are in place for the administration of this teaching, hospital-based teaching has been minimally regulated. A review of trainee satisfaction with current levels of hospital-based training was performed, both to reflect the thoughts of trainees themselves and to highlight specific areas requiring improvement.

Sixty-four basic specialist trainees (44 surgical [BSTs] and 20 physician [BPTs]) from all of the major Melbourne metropolitan teaching hospitals completed an anonymous survey.

Surgical trainees considered all areas of hospital-based training to be deficient, with overall dissatisfaction significantly greater for BSTs compared with BPTs (P=0.046). A requirement for increased hospital-based training was similarly greater for BSTs (P=0.0072).

The study confirms the need for a change in the regulation and administration of hospital-based teaching for surgical trainees.