Medical student contact with specialty trainees: Missing out in general practice?

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Medical students on clinical placements value positive experiences with specialty trainees. We aimed to document student contact with general practice registrars and other specialty registrars and any relationship between this contact and student career interests. METHOD: Medical students were surveyed following their general practice, general medicine, general surgery, psychiatry and medicine-in-society placements. RESULTS: One hundred and twenty-four students completed the survey (73% response rate). Participants reported substantially less contact with general practice registrars and rural generalist trainees than with other registrars. Compared with students placed in regional areas, metropolitan students were more likely to have no contact at all with general practice registrars. Interest in specialty careers was correlated with interest in knowing more about specialty training, but not with the extent of contact with registrars or personal connections in any specialty studied. DISCUSSION: Student exposure to general practice registrars in at least one Australian medical school is relatively low. Opportunities to increase this should be explored. Students themselves may have little influence over their contact with specialty trainees, despite valuing it highly.