Medical student contact with specialty trainees: Missing out in general practice?

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• General Practice Training
• Career Development

Background:

• Medical students highly value positive interactions with specialty trainees during clinical placements.
• Understanding the extent of student contact with general practice registrars and other specialty registrars is crucial.
• Investigating the relationship between this contact and students' future career interests is important for medical workforce planning.

Purpose of the Study:

• To document the frequency of contact between medical students and general practice registrars versus other specialty registrars.
• To explore the correlation between student exposure to registrars and their specialty career interests.
• To identify potential disparities in registrar contact based on geographical placement location (metropolitan vs. regional).

Main Methods:

• A survey was administered to medical students after completing various clinical placements, including general practice, general medicine, general surgery, psychiatry, and medicine-in-society.
• Data were collected from 124 students, achieving a 73% response rate.
• Analysis focused on reported contact hours with different registrar types and self-reported career interests.

Main Results:

• Students reported significantly less contact with general practice registrars and rural generalist trainees compared to other specialty registrars.
• Metropolitan-based students were more likely than regional students to have no contact with general practice registrars.
• Interest in pursuing a specialty career correlated with a desire to learn more about specialty training, but not with the extent of registrar contact or personal connections.

Conclusions:

• Exposure of medical students to general practice registrars appears low in at least one Australian medical school.
• Strategies to enhance student exposure to general practice registrars should be actively explored and implemented.
• Students highly value trainee contact, but may have limited control over the frequency and nature of these interactions.