Connect
MJA
MJA

Teaching on the run tips 13: being a good supervisor — preventing problems

Fiona R Lake and Gerard Ryan
Med J Aust 2006; 184 (8): . || doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2006.tb00294.x
Published online: 17 April 2006

Work in medicine has many stressors.1,2 Failing to cope well with these stressors can lead to emotional exhaustion and burnout.1,2 Junior medical officers (JMOs) who can’t cope with stress make significantly more errors.3 This leads to increased costs as a result of JMO absenteeism and litigation by patients against hospitals because of suboptimal care.4,5 As outlined in “Tips 11”, the causes of poor performance may lie with the person, the system, or the supervisor.6 Supervision is often perceived to be inadequate by JMOs and lack of supervisors one of their greatest stressors.7


  • 1 Education Centre, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Western Australia, Perth, WA.
  • 2 Department of Respiratory Medicine, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Perth, WA.


Correspondence: Fiona.Lake@uwa.edu.au

Acknowledgements: 

We would like to thank the teachers and participants in Teaching on the Run courses for their input, and the Medical Training Review Panel, Australian Department of Health and Ageing, for funding support.

Competing interests:

None identified.

  • 1. Willcock SM, Daly MG, Tennant CC, Allard BJ. Burnout and psychiatric morbidity in new graduates. Med J Aust 2004; 181: 357-360. <MJA full text>
  • 2. Luck C. Reducing stress among junior doctors. BMJ Classified (Career focus) 2000 Oct 28; 321: 2.
  • 3. Jones JW, Barge BN, Steffy BD, et al. Stress and medical malpractice: organizational risk assessment and intervention. J Appl Psychol 1988; 73: 727-735.
  • 4. Firth-Cozens J. Doctors, their well-being and their stress. BMJ 2003; 326: 670-671.
  • 5. Firth-Cozens J. Interventions to improve physicians’ well-being and patient care. Soc Sci Med 2001; 52: 215-222.
  • 6. Lake FR, Ryan G. Teaching on the run tips 11: the junior doctor in difficulty. Med J Aust 2005; 183: 475-476. <MJA full text>
  • 7. Paice E, Rutter H, Wetherall M, et al. Stressful incidents, stress and coping strategies in the pre-registration house officer year. Med Educ 2002; 36: 56-65.
  • 8. Kilminster SM, Jolly BC. Effective supervision in clinical practice settings: a literature review. Med Educ 2000; 34: 827-840.
  • 9. Busari JO, Weggelaar NM, Knottnerus AC, et al. How medical residents perceive the quality of supervision provided by attending doctors in the clinical setting. Med Educ 2005; 39: 696-703.
  • 10. Freeth R. Supervision. BMJ Classified (Career focus) 2001 Sep 15; 323: 2.
  • 11. Osborn LM, Sargent JR, Williams SD. Effects of time-in-clinic, clinical setting and faculty supervision on the continuity clinical experience. Pediatrics 1993; 91: 1089-1093.
  • 12. McKee M, Black N. Does the current use of junior doctors in the United Kingdom affect the quality of medical care? Soc Sci Med 1992; 34: 549-558.
  • 13. Grainger C. Mentoring — supporting doctors at work and play. BMJ Careers 2002 Jun 29; 324: s203.

Author

remove_circle_outline Delete Author
add_circle_outline Add Author

Comment
Do you have any competing interests to declare? *

I/we agree to assign copyright to the Medical Journal of Australia and agree to the Conditions of publication *
I/we agree to the Terms of use of the Medical Journal of Australia *
Email me when people comment on this article

Online responses are no longer available. Please refer to our instructions for authors page for more information.