Career choice and experience of distress amongst interns: A survey of New South Wales internship 1987-1990

Abstract

Successive cohorts of interns assigned to a Sydney teaching hospital since 1987 were interviewed at the beginning and end of their intern year to document factors influencing career choice and psychological morbidity, with comparisons between the graduates of the three NSW medical faculties. Intellectual challenge and altruism were the two most reported motivating factors in choosing Medicine. Many interns expressed regret at their career choice. Apart from anger, self-reported psychological morbidity during internship was low. Interns' evaluation of the relevance of their undergraduate training declined during internship, except for Newcastle graduates. Increased "hands on" clinical experience during undergraduate years, career guidance, assertiveness training, and time management skills should be included in the undergraduate curriculum. More registrar teaching, frequent performance feedback, regular grievance sessions and decreased clerical activities contribute to more enriching intern experiences.

Measuring the hospital experiences of junior doctors

“…The support of medical administration was rated reasonably highly in our study. The importance of administrative support for doctors is probably under‐recognized by the hospital community, despite the fact that provisions for job‐sharing, fairness of rosters and opportunities for interacting with administrators are perceived as important (Hume & Wilhelm 1994).…”

“…There has been little research into the problems facing junior doctors in Australia. Data from the states of New South Wales and Queensland suggest that the interns report a lack of feedback about their performance, and many believe that their patients' health may be suboptimal as a result of their care (Hume & Wilhelm 1994; Wise et al 1995). Recognition of these problems has led to an educational commitment to junior doctors by several organizations.…”

Health and stress in Australian interns

“…A reduction in hours and provision of some administrative support (e.g. phlebotomists, Postgraduate Medical Council and structured intern support) have been provided since an earlier study 5 , yet there are significant areas of stress and a fall in perceived health as measured by this study. There are few studies in the literature regarding new graduates starting jobs 17−19 .…”

“…Studies from the United Kingdom, USA and Scandinavia have recognized that junior doctors experience high levels of stress, anxiety and depression during their first year as doctors 1,3,4 . However, other than the paper by Hume and Wilhelm 5 , there is little information on stress in Australian interns during their first postgraduate year, and there are no studies that have documented changes in self‐reported health and stress over a year or followed intern stress over a series of years.…”

Beyond the chalkboard: the interacting domains in undergraduate psychiatric teaching

“…This will enable students to identify the core neuroscientific basis when confronted with fundamental concepts. An increase in hands‐on clinical experience during undergraduate years, career guidance, assertiveness training and time management skills should be included in the curriculum 23 …”