Junior doctors seek ‘life experience’

The exodus of Irish junior doctors is due not only to the lack of higher specialist training positions, but to graduates’ desire to spend time working abroad, according to a new study. More than 80 per cent of those entering basic specialist training aspire to work as consultants in Ireland but 92.5 per cent intend to spend some time working abroad, with Australia and New Zealand the two most popular destinations.

While concern about this exodus of graduates of Irish medical schools is at the forefront of national discussion, there has been a lack of data about those applying for and entering postgraduate medical education and training in Ireland.

The Irish Junior Doctors' Career Plans and Pathways study, which has been published in the Irish Journal of Medical Science, sought to collate existing data relating to trainees and training programmes in Ireland to inform debate and policymaking in postgraduate medical training. The research was carried out as a collaboration between the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland and the medical education unit at University College Cork. It was led by Dr Deirdre Bennett, a senior lecturer in the school of medicine at University College Cork.

Dr Bennett said the trainee “exodus” was more complex than often portrayed. “Of the 92.5 per cent of trainees who said they wanted to spend time working abroad, 57 per cent attributed this desire to life experience. Yes, there are some people who leave because they can’t get the kind of training post they want here, but there is also a lifestyle aspect to it. The desire to spend time training outside Ireland must be accounted for in workforce planning and in the configuration of training programmes,” she said.

The expansion of higher specialist training programmes was a potential solution to the numbers of trainees leaving Ireland after basic specialist training, Dr Bennett said.