The sixth iteration of the Medical Training Survey (MTS) is open now, giving trainees the chance to help improve the experience for others.
The MTS is the national, annual, profession-wide survey of doctors-in-training and historically, more than half of all the eligible doctors participate, making it the most comprehensive national data source on medical training.
In 2023, 23,298 trainees (54%) participated in the MTS, resulting in a statistically reliable sample size for gauging doctors’ responses.
MBA Acting Chair Dr Susan O’Dwyer said that the MBA reviewed the questions to ensure a balance between the value of a consistent, longitudinal dataset with updates to questions that ensured the MTS tracked current and emerging issues.
“All doctors-in-training in Australia can do the MTS, including interns, hospital medical officers, resident medical officers, non-accredited trainees, postgraduate trainees, principal house officers, registrars, specialist trainees and international medical graduates with provisional or limited registration,” she said.
“Career medical officers who intend to undertake further postgraduate training in medicine can also participate.”
There are five versions of the survey, tailored to each group of trainees, and the MBA has stressed that the MTS results will remain confidential.
In 2024, a new question will distinguish sexual harassment from other forms of harassment – meeting stakeholder requests for more detail to help health services, educators and training providers address and eliminate this behaviour from medical workplaces.
“Past MTS results exposing fault lines in the culture of medicine are now being used across the health sector to drive improvements in medical training,” Dr O’Dwyer said.
Last year’s MTS highlighted ongoing cultural issues within medical training, noting that 54% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander trainees experienced or witnessed bullying, harassment, discrimination, and racism.
The longitudinal MTS data also showed that 35% of all trainees experienced or witnessed the same behaviours during their medical training, and last year’s response by Chair of the MBA, Dr Anne Tonkin, promised “critical and urgent action” to address these issues.
“This important data can support our journey towards providing culturally safe and appropriate medical training, and more broadly, culturally safe healthcare,” she said.
However, with the inclusion of the new sexual harassment category, the 2024 MTS may uncover more issues for the MBA to address in coming years than its predecessors.
The 2023 MTS results are available here.