A day in the life of a doctor-in-training

Training in a variety of skills while caring for patients, without the burden of unnecessary tasks, and with meaningful feedback and supervision and time for reflection and self-care — too much to ask?

In this issue of the Journal, Westbrook and colleagues studied the work of interns, residents and registrars across four wards in a Sydney teaching hospital (→ All in a day’s work: an observational study to quantify how and with whom doctors on hospital wards spend their time).1 Their findings are limited by the study’s small sample size, and the fact that each participant was observed, on average, for just under 8 hours, and not during evening or night shifts. Nevertheless, their key findings are pertinent to understanding a day in the life of a doctor-in-training.