Junior doctors who are leaving the employ of the Canterbury District Health Board are routinely invited to return a questionnaire which asks questions about their levels of satisfaction about working in Canterbury, the extent to which their expectations were met, and their reasons for leaving. This paper reports the responses that were received from 190 doctors who departed in the 2006 year. These measurements provide information that is useful for the maintenance of staff welfare, and for workforce planning. Most often the reasons for leaving related to factors outside of the organisation’s control such as career development or travel.

Which psycho-demographic factors predict a doctor’s intention to leave New Zealand general practice?
Ewan D McComb

In the past, predictions of a GP workforce crisis have been made based on the increasing average age of GPs. The current study supports past predictions that nearly 30% of GPs intend to leave general practice within the next 5 years, but finds that the age of the GP is not a reliable predictor of intention to leave. Satisfaction with general practice as an occupation and the degree of psychological commitment to continuing to work in general practice were more valid predictors.

Female medical students may accrue less student loan debt than their male colleagues in New Zealand
Karina M McHardy, Anna Janssen, Phillippa J Poole

The aims of the study were to quantify the current level of actual student loan debt in Auckland Medical School students at the time of graduation, and to investigate how debt burden relates to gender and ethnicity. One-third of NZ resident students have a student loan of over NZ$75,000 at the time of graduation, and 13% report a loan total of over $90,000. There appear to be differences in the borrowing behaviours of males and females in the medical school programme, with females significantly more likely to be student loan-free at the time of graduation. Females were also more likely to have a student loan total under $30,000. The reported loan sizes of Māori and Pacific Island students did not differ significantly from those of other ethnicities. Overall, 11% of study respondents reported that their student loan burden would significantly influence their decisions around future specialty choice.

Interns’ assessment and management of three common urological conditions: a survey of their knowledge and skills. Are they adequately prepared for clinical practice?
Eric Chung, Philip Sprott

Graduating interns are inadequately prepared on assessment and management of common urological conditions due to a combination of poor formal instruction, lack of supervision, and inadequate opportunities in surgical subspecialties rotations. However interns gained valuable experience during their clinical training and through structured internship education sessions, as evident by the result after 6 months of internship.

Patient dissatisfaction recorded in hospital notes in New Zealand: their occurrence and pattern
Peter Davis, Roy Lay-Yee, Robin Briant

There is great interest in the quality of patient interactions with the health system. This paper looks at whether there is evidence of patient dissatisfaction with hospital treatment. It uses 6579 patient records from a sample of admissions from 13 public hospitals in 1998. Just under 3% of these records had a mention in the medical notes of patient dissatisfaction or possible legal action. This is a low rate, but it is not out of line with other kinds of measures. Those patients with a mention of dissatisfaction in their notes tended also to have evidence of other clinical and administrative issues and complications in their case. It is possible, therefore, that information of this kind could be helpful in pointing to areas needing improvement in the ways in which hospitals carry out their work.