Residents’ perspective on the quality of postgraduate training programs in Pakistan – the good, the bad and the ugly

OBJECTIVES: To assess the satisfaction of trainees towards different attributes of their training programs. METHODS: This cross-sectional survey was carried out by enrolling trainee doctors currently working in Medical, Surgical, Dental and Allied specialties of the country by sending a validated and piloted questionnaire through email. Data collection was done from 1(st) to 31(st) January 2021 after taking ethical approval from the concerned authorities. Data was analysed using SPSS v. 19.0. RESULTS: A total of 516 completed responses were received from 15 major cities of the country. The overall perceived satisfaction towards clinical skills (42%), teaching skills (31.4%), personal growth and development (23.6%), research (21%) and supervisor’s role (44.2%) were considerably low with the most common causes for non-satisfaction being poor work-life balance (59%), financial instability (54.5%), poor research facilities (53%), poor career guidance (44%) and poor skill development (42.4%) in descending order. Senior years of residency, government and private set-ups, less than four and greater than 13 residents on average with less than three supervisors per department, excessive duty hours and financial instability in-lieu of not doing locums were statistically related to poor satisfaction across majority of the facets of residency as well the overall satisfaction towards training programs. CONCLUSION: There is a tremendous scope for improvement in the recognized and partially acknowledged attributes of our training programs. Yearly feedback surveys involving residents is essential for enlightening the authorities and mitigating the trainees’ grievances.