This year's cross-sectional survey of trainees yielded a response rate of 54% which was slightly lower than the 57% in the 2003 survey. We hope the response rate will increase in future.

The survey this year was useful in showing whether training programmes in institutions adhered to the required training deliverables introduced last year to increase the quality of specialist training. Trainees were also asked to name role models and good teachers in the institutions to assist the Specialists Accreditation Board to identify trainers who could be assigned a bigger role in the specialist training framework.

These surveys enable more concrete measures for protected training time and accountabilities. The Ministry of Health is committed to further improve on measures to improve training deliverables.

The training deliverables are a proxy measure of quality of training. There is a need for greater accountability for training by both trainees and trainers. This, to ensure our specialist training system continues to produce high calibre specialists. The traineeship survey gives you an opportunity to feedback to improve the quality of training you receive and we hope more of you will participate next time round!

Findings on Training System

Most trainees had designated supervisors with a quarter of trainees meeting them once in each quarter.

• Most rated their supervision as satisfactory with 42% rating.
• ~ 8% rated their supervisors poorly. Of those who rated their supervision as being poor (3.4%), most attributed it to their supervisor being 'too busy to teach' or 'not interested in teaching'.
• Overall up to 11% of respondents did not have clear training goals and objectives at the start of their posting. Of those who had set goals, up to 35% quoted their satisfaction with the achievement of training goals/objectives as excellent, whereas the majority (62%) cited it as being satisfactory with a small proportion rating it poorly.
  

Findings on National Training Programme

Although a majority of trainees were satisfied with the National training programme, a small proportion was dissatisfied with the programme. All trainees from Internal Medicine related specialties*, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Orthopaedic Surgery and ENT indicated having a structured National training programme.

* Internal Medicine related specialties excludes Internal Medicine BST and AST and includes the ASTs in Cardiology, Dermatology, Endocrinology, Gastroenterology, Geriatric Medicine, Haematology, Infectious Diseases, Medical Oncology, Neurology, Rehabilitation Medicine, Renal Medicine, Respiratory Medicine and Rheumatology.