Preparing the future workforce for healthcare in Australia

Abstract

Medical education fails to prepare young doctors for the nature of the work they will encounter. Doctors face a rapidly changing medical landscape, which relies more and more upon interprofessional collaboration to optimise patient outcomes and upon non-clinical skills to provide care efficiently and cost effectively. The current response to change is a reactive and resource-intensive effort, where established doctors are directed towards new ways of working. A better response would be interprofessional clinical and non-clinical training, incorporating a philosophy and style that accommodate innovation, communication and change. This preparative training should be overseen by a single educational enterprise that links undergraduate and postgraduate instruction. Improved training might enable better design of the healthcare system from within.