Medical profession suffers from poor careers advice

Doctors and medical students need better access to informed impartial careers advice, according to a report published today by the British Medical Association.

The report, ‘Signposting Medical Careers’ produced by the BMA’s Board of Medical Education, examined the ways in which medical students, junior doctors and career grade doctors got the information they needed to make vital career choices.

The report found that only 5% of medical students had availed of the limited advice available in their study of the medical career options.

Professor Peter Dangerfield, chairman of the BMA's Board of Medical Education, commenting on the report, said: "Given our current problems with recruitment and retention, it is essential that doctors sustain a long term interest in their chosen field. For them to be able to make the right career choices, they need access to the right careers advice."

In the past, doctors simply had to choose between hospital work and general practice, but with over 70 recognised career specialties and a huge range of options, effective careers guidance is essential, said the BMA. As doctors' training progresses it becomes increasingly difficult for them to change direction, so it is essential that they make the right choices from the outset.

Despite this the survey found that medical students are not always encouraged to consider their career options and only 5% of them take up the limited opportunities for advice that are available. Most doctors reported that they had never received any guidance or counselling, and the advice they did receive was often ad hoc and on an informal basis. Consequently, they often end up in a specialty after hearing about vacancies on the grapevine rather than through careful planning.

In addition, careers advice provision is hampered by a lack of resources and support for those providing advice is inadequate.

The report outlined a number of recommendations:

• a co-ordinated and transparent approach to medical careers advice
• detailed careers information should be easily accessible
• access to impartial advice from appropriately trained professionals
• proper training and support for doctors who provide informal advice
• opportunities for advice to be sign-posted more clearly

The report further recommended that research be conducted to examine the low uptake of careers advice by medical students and that career management skills should to be incorporated into the undergraduate and postgraduate curricula as an integral part of a doctor's professional development.

(SP)