An evaluation of senior house officer training in oral and maxillofacial surgery

The senior house officer (SHO) is a training post but there is concern over whether service commitments are impinging on this. The European Working Time Directive (EWTD) and Foundation Programme have recently been introduced to try and improve working lives and training quality respectively.

To examine the current perceptions of SHO training in relation to the recommended standards in the UK, and to compare the level of training with data sets from the survey in 2002 (Keith and Durham 2002).

A questionnaire using Likert, dichotomous and free text responses was posted to all SHOs in oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMFS) in the UK. The questionnaire was almost identical to that used in a previous national survey (Keith and Durham 2002). The data set from the previous survey was available thereby allowing statistical comparisons to be made.

An estimated response rate of 56% was achieved (n = 228). Forty-eight percent of respondents felt undergraduate BDS training was inadequate for their job, and the longer individuals had been qualified the less they felt out of their depth (r = 0.452, p <0.0001). These findings were consistent with the previous survey. Formal training in medical examination of patients had been provided to 58%, which was slightly less than previously (64%). Over half of those responding had regular supervised local anaesthetic minor oral surgery sessions (55%), and outpatient clinics with a designated trainer (54%). A minority of trainees had not had any appraisal (27%). The majority of respondents (79%) stated their rota was EWTD-compliant.

Improvements have been made but the introduction of a national structured programme could help standardise training.