Mr Paul Long1, Prof. Erwin Loh2, Dr Katherine Worsley2
1Centre for Health Leadership, Surry Hills, Australia, 2St Vincent’s Health Australia, Melbourne, Australia
Purpose: To assess levels and patterns of engagement amongst doctors in training, at two teaching hospitals in two states, operated by the same health care provider; and to describe individual and organisational factors related to their engagement.
Design: A survey was emailed to all junior medical staff, seeking responses to 30 pre-determined items. The survey used a valid and reliable instrument which provided an overall index of medical engagement, against which respondents relative engagement is ranked highest to lowest across 10 categories.
Findings: 250 responded to the survey. At Site A JMO, the average ratings for seven of the ten categories fell within the low relative engagement band and two were rated within the medium relative engagement band. At Site B, the average ratings for all the 10 fell within the highest relative engagement band. JMOs working at Site A are much less engaged than their colleagues working at Site B. While A and B are operationally part of the same organisation, albeit in different states and cities; their formal JMO training pathways are the same. This implies that the informal training experience are a factor in the results, such as quality of supervision, clinical workload, institutional culture, and the degree of involvement in the wider organisation.
Originality: Despite medical engagement is recognised as crucial, little is known individual and organisational factors that support junior doctors to be engaged.
Biography:
Founding Director of the Centre for Health Leadership
An experienced senior health care consultant and academic specialising in organisational systems and behaviour change related to the safety and quality of healthcare systems and service delivery models. Paul trained at the Harvard University Kennedy School.