Knowledge of satisfaction during medical elective placements is essential if one aims to inspire students for a specific medical profession. Instructors who can identify weaknesses and deficits in their training regime can therefore in the future increase the number of medical doctors who choose their speciality. The foundation of personal development has to be laid very early in the career of medical students.

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Introduction: Expecting a significant lack of medical doctors in a few years, there has been growing concern how to attract young doctors to work in hospitals and private practices in areas of shortage. To address workforce shortages, we need more detailed information about medical students' and young doctors' expectations and the factors discouraging them from choosing certain careers. To obtain this information, a national brain trust developed a cross-sectional questionnaire focusing on the internships. In this publication we introduce the study as well as the internet-based online data collecting process as a basis the presentation of our subsequent data analyses, which will be performed for different research topics and subgroups. Material and Methods: A national brain trust designed an online-based survey with a minimum of 153 questions per participant. The questionnaire was open for participant input nationwide from Friday, 13th of 15 April 2012 until Monday, 24th of September 2012. A total of 9,079 medical students and junior residents finally answered the questionnaire. Results:The results from our pilot study show that the questionnaire is actually measuring motivational and frustrating factors of future German doctors. Participants on average answered this survey within 1.05 days; however, there was a very wide range. Most questionnaires were completed on Fridays. We did not identify relevant associations between higher e-learning affinity, more intense computer uses or the size of university and faster submission of questionnaires. There also were no gender differences. Further analyses of the survey data will be performed to learn more about motivational and frustrating factors.Discussion: Central parameters of the results are comparable to other studies. We are confident that the questionnaire has enough statistical power to answer the questions that were addressed and that must be answered to prevent a severe lack of medical practitioners in a few years.

Introduction The German practical year is the last clinical placement period during Medical School. However, it remains unclear how medical students evaluate the practical year in orthopaedics and traumatology (Orthopädie und Unfallchirurgie; O & U) and whether it has an impact on becoming an O & U specialist. Method We analysed data of 146 medical students (46,7% female) who completed the placement in O & U. From the evaluation, 37 items were included in the analyses. Participants who could imagine becoming an O & U specialist (O & U-Ja) following graduation were statistically compared to those who could not (O & U-Nein). Results Overall 123 (83.7%) trainees indicated that they would like to become an O & U specialist (O & U-Ja), 18 (12.8%) negated (O & U-Nein) and 6 (4.1%) were undecided. Groups did not differ for sex and age (sex: Chi² = 2.50, p = 0.114; age: F [1.93] < 1, p = 0.764). Group differences were found for practical orientation, independency, acquisition of anamnesis and diagnostics skills and problem-solving expertise with students who could imagine becoming an O & U specialist (O & U-Ja) giving the highest ratings. Discussion Evaluations of the last medical year are essential in order to continuously improve the internship experience and to attract students towards a certain medical field and, moreover, to post-graduate specialist training. Clinics and institutions who already emphasize on the factors derived from this evaluation, or are continuously working on improvement, might be more able to attract young professionals, since personnel acquisition is starting early in the medical field.