3 August 2009
A Monash University researcher has warned doctors are struggling to maintain their involvement in teaching and research activities due to a shortage of doctors in the workforce.
Further the demands for doctors to teach medical students and doctors-in-training are increasing with even more medical students now enrolled.
Dr Catherine Joyce from the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University said many clinicians wanted to help teach medical students and doctors-in-training or engage in research, but did not have the time.
"Large sections of the Australian medical profession, including general practice are, experiencing workforce shortages. Pressured clinicians are likely to prioritise the provision of services to patients over the less urgent demands of teaching and research," Dr Joyce said.
"The demands of service delivery and changed funding models are also straining the capacity of doctors in public hospitals to undertake teaching duties or research.
"Medical training now takes place in a wide range of clinical settings, but the support for doctors to provide education varies considerably between these settings."
Dr Joyce's recent research has also shown that m edical educators represented just one per cent of the total medical workforce while 20 per cent of clinicians were involved in providing education (including over one third of specialists and 10 per cent of general practitioners) and the majority of teaching hours (almost three quarters) were provided by clinicians.
Medical researchers represented less than two per cent of the total medical workforce but provided over half of all estimated research time and seven per cent of clinicians were involved in research.
Dr Joyce and her co-authors have proposed a range of strategies to support and enhance medical education and research including the recruitment of senior clinicians who have retired from the public hospital system but still have the capacity to contribute to the academic workforce, increasing the availability of formal university appointments for clinicians, and recognising the time clinicians spend teaching or conducting research by providing quarantined time and provider activity payments.
The article first appeared in the Medical Journal of Australia, a publication of the Australian Medical Association.
Dr Catherine Joyce is available for interview on 0400 244 929 or contact Samantha Blair, Media & Communications on 0439 013 951.
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