Measuring the working experience of doctors in training

In this paper published in the Future Healthcare Journal, researchers including CSDA’s Rhema Vaithianathan and Larissa Lorimer use an online tool (‘MyDay’) to look for an association between tasks and emotional affect for 565 doctors in training. They find that the participant trainee doctors spent a quarter of their time at work on paperwork or clinical work that did not involve patients, which was associated with more negative emotions. Positive emotions were associated with breaks, staff meetings, research, learning and clinical tasks that involved patients. Trainee doctors reporting that they had considered leaving medicine reported more negative feelings. The authors conclude that systematic workplace changes, like regular breaks, reduced paperwork and improved IT systems could contribute to positive workplace experiences and reduce the intention to quit among doctors in training.

Citation:
Hockey, P., Vaithianathan, R., Baeker, A., Beer, F., Goodall, A. H., Hammerton, M., Jarvis, R., Brock, S., & Lorimer, L. (2020). Measuring the working experience of doctors in training. Future Healthcare Journal, 7(3), e17–e22. https://doi.org/10.7861/fhj.2020-0005