Newly qualified doctors’ perceived effects of assistantship alignment with first post: a longitudinal questionnaire study

What is it about?

Amidst the controversial headlines highlighting the patient-safety problems faced in hospitals when medical students take up their first jobs - the UK has introduced a new phase of the educational system for final-year medical students called the 'assistantship'. During this phase medical students are gradually introduced to their new roles as trainee doctors in the hospitals and provided with a phased transition in terms of responsibilities. However, there are many different types of assistantships. This study specifically examines the effects of assistantships that are directly aligned to medical students' first jobs and those what are not specifically aligned, following them over a period of one year from undergraduate assistantship experiences, though their firs job and into their second job. Medical students completed a questionnaire at these three time periods. We found that those who undertook an assistantship that was aligned to their first job felt more prepared than those who took an assistantship that was not aligned. They also felt less anxiety when moving to their first job. However, those who took a non-aligned assistantship felt less anxiety than those who had an aligned experience at the point at which they moved into their second job. This research is important as it is the first time we have seen the relative benefits of these two different models of assistantship .

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