Medical trainees are still experiencing unacceptably high rates of racism and sexual harassment.
We have responded to the results of the latest Medical Training Survey (MTS), which revealed an unacceptably high number of doctors in training continue to experience racism and sexual harassment in their workplaces.
Nearly 25,000 medical trainees completed the 2024 MTS, with one third (33 per cent) reporting that they had experienced and/or witnessed bullying, discrimination, harassment, sexual harassment and/or racism.
Concerningly, this figured spiked to 54 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander trainees.
The survey also found 19 per cent of all doctors in training are considering a career outside medicine.
In our media release, AMA President Dr Danielle McMullen said the results should be a "major wake-up call to tackle the systemic issues that impact the training and wellbeing of doctors in training".
"Doctors in training are the future of our profession and we must ensure their training experiences are valuable and enjoyable so we do not lose their talent to other professions," Dr McMullen said.
AMA Council of Doctors in Training Chair Dr Sanjay Hettige said: "While our medical training system continues to perform well in terms of education and a variety of other areas, there is still a long way to go to address some of these systemic and cultural issues."
We are committed to pushing for reform to drastically improve the training experience for our future doctors. We are calling for institutions and employers to commit to the Every Doctor Every Setting Framework and ensure hospitals and healthcare settings are culturally and psychologically safe work environments for all employees.
