Medical students in Aotearoa not prepared for the demands of hospital work

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2022-11-11 00:01

New Zealand

Photo by ABRAHAM POPOCATL on Unsplash

Junior doctors working in a stressed health system are faced with competing demands such as night cover, emergency surgery, and looking after their own health. Researchers surveyed 13 first and second year house officers working in general surgery at North Shore Hospital, and found that while they looked forward to feeling part of the medical team and being able to contribute to patient care, many felt unprepared for the transition from student to clinician. The authors say that acquiring professional skills such as workload prioritisation and conflict resolution must be considered an important part of medical training, and formally working to integrate medical students into surgical teams with carefully graded clinical responsibilities would mean that they are better prepared when starting work in hospitals.

Media release

From: New Zealand Medical Association (NZMA)

Medical student teaching has moved away from experienced based teaching with real patients in real clinical situations to more didactic teaching models (lectures and tutorials). A survey of new medical graduates working in hospitals showed that only 50% of responders had ever attended a critical clinical event in their training and that specific teaching in mental and physical self-care, managing extended hours of work, clinical prioritisation, delegation and workload management is lacking. Given the extreme stress that the health system now finds itself operating under this assumes an even greater priority to prepare our medical graduates adequately to manage in conditions of resource limitation.

Journal/
conference: New Zealand Medical Journal

Organisation/s: North Shore Hospital, New Zealand

Funder: na

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