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A day in the life of a doctor-in-training

Mark A Brown and Stephanie Arnold
Med J Aust 2008; 188 (9): . || doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2008.tb01759.x
Published online: 5 May 2008

Training in a variety of skills while caring for patients, without the burden of unnecessary tasks, and with meaningful feedback and supervision and time for reflection and self-care — too much to ask?

In this issue of the Journal, Westbrook and colleagues studied the work of interns, residents and registrars across four wards in a Sydney teaching hospital (→ All in a day’s work: an observational study to quantify how and with whom doctors on hospital wards spend their time).1 Their findings are limited by the study’s small sample size, and the fact that each participant was observed, on average, for just under 8 hours, and not during evening or night shifts. Nevertheless, their key findings are pertinent to understanding a day in the life of a doctor-in-training.


  • 1 Department of Renal Medicine, St George Hospital and University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW.
  • 2 NSW Institute of Medical Education and Training, Sydney, NSW.
  • 3 Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, NSW.


Correspondence: mbrown@unsw.edu.au

Acknowledgements: 

We thank Associate Professor Simon Willcock for his advice in preparing this editorial.

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  • 5. Skinner CA. Re-inventing medical work and training: a view from generation X. Med J Aust 2006; 185: 35-36. <MJA full text>
  • 6. Confederation of Postgraduate Medical Education Councils. Australian Curriculum Framework for Junior Doctors project. http://www.cpmec.org.au/curriculum/welcome.cfm (accessed Apr 2008).
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  • 8. Wilhelm KA. The student and junior doctor in distress. Med J Aust 2002; 177 (1 Suppl): S5-S8. <MJA full text>

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