Whither or wither the medical registrar?

Abstract

In 2013, the Royal College of Physicians published The medical registrar: empowering the unsung heroes of patient care. This report showed that workload, teamwork, training and fl exibility were the key factors in determining job satisfaction and morale for medical registrars. Since the report, some progress has been made in each of these four areas. Reduction in workload by development of new parts of the hospital workforce has started and the junior doctors' industrial action has forced the NHS and employers to look afresh at both workload and training aspects. The creation of chief registrars and guardians of safe working has started to create a supporting framework to improve professional working lives and training. Teamwork and support from consultants is perhaps the biggest opportunity to improve matters. However, the NHS remains infl exible and making the medical registrar post attractive to those in earlier stages of training is the biggest challenge.

Now, where are those matches at the end of this tunnel?

“…The topics covered in this edition are wide-ranging and include medical leadership, 1,2 advances in medical training, 3,4 the potential role for trainees in quality improvement 5 and the current plight of the medical registrar. 6,7 We are delighted once again to include an article from Australia 8 illustrating that, despite many challenges being shared between the hemispheres, there exist important differences in opinion and approach from north to south and we can learn so much from one another.…”