Permanent Working Group of European Junior Hospital Doctors. Policy statement on postgraduate medical education. Subcommittee on Postgraduate Training.

The Permanent Working Group of European Junior Hospital Doctors (PWG), representing junior doctors of 18 European countries, has amongst its foremost interests the quality of postgraduate medical training. Building upon the work of other groups, and notably that of the Advisory Committee on Medical Training (EC), it has developed its own policy statement on postgraduate training. The statement defines the aims of training and the needs of the trainee and proposes that these can only be met through a close relationship between the trainee and a clearly identified trainer. The duties of the trainer are set out, with emphasis on the need for both practical and theoretical teaching and on the importance of regular, unambiguous feedback regarding progress. Trainers themselves require remunerated time for carrying out these duties and training in educational methods. An appropriate balance between clinical and research experience may require an upper limit on the proportion of the training period which may be spent in research. Training programmes should be inspected and approved by appropriate professional bodies working to published criteria of sufficiency. The PWG believes that high levels of skill and knowledge amongst fully trained specialists can only be guaranteed when the training system identifies trainees' shortcomings at every stage and corrects them through unambiguous feedback.