Fifth-year internal medicine residents in Spain: A survey on education, assessment of competencies and job perspectives

Abstract

BackgroundSpecialist training is based on the gradual acquisition of expertise, skills and responsibilities. The aim of this study is to determine the opinion of residents regarding their training. Material and methodsThis was a cross-sectional descriptive study based on an online survey of 5th-year residents during February and March 2017. ResultsA total of 194 residents (62.8% of the total) responded to the survey, 62.9% of whom were women and 50% of whom were younger than 30years, representing hospitals from all levels and from the 17 autonomous communities. More than 80% of the residents choose the specialty once again and believed that the duration of the residence was appropriate; however, 76.3% would eliminate some of their rotations. Most of the residents did not know the objectives of each rotation, and 37.1% felt they were not adequately supervised. Some 82.5% would change the evaluation system, and 68.0% would favour performing an excellence test. Most of the residents had published at least one article or performed one presentation at a congress; however, only 27.8% had completed a doctoral thesis. Although 74.7% of the internists believed they would find employment, only 28.4% had an offer 1month after completing their residence. ConclusionsThe residents are satisfied with their training, although there is still a deficit in supervision and dissatisfaction with the method of assessing their knowledge and the precarious job market during the first year for specialists.