The attitudes of Irish trainees to their training and its supervision: a five-year follow up study

Objectives: To assess the current attitudes of Irish psychiatric trainees to their training and to determine whether problems identified five years ago have improved.

Method: A postal questionnaire was circulated to all identified psychiatric trainees in the eastern region of Ireland over a six-month period in 2000.

Results: 153 (62%) trainees responded to the study, and 81% described their training as ‘adequate’ or better. Significant demographic changes over the last five years are recorded. Satisfactory induction, regular supervision and access to tutors are all associated with higher overall satisfaction with training. Sixty-seven per cent report receiving an induction course, but just 40% describe this as satisfactory, and only 49% of trainees receive regular supervision. Specific difficulties in training are reported less frequently than in 1995, but 35% of non-EU doctors report racial discrimination in training and only 59% of trainees received a practical demonstration prior to administering electroconvulsive therapy (ECT).

Conclusions: Trainees continue to express high levels of satisfaction with their training. Improvements have been made in a number of key areas, although difficulties remain. For example, regular supervision, which was associated with a positive outlook on training, are unavailable to a majority of trainees.