An assessment of the preregistration year experience.

All 115 graduates qualifying at Liverpool University Medical School in one year were sent a questionnaire in the final week of their preregistration year to assess the experience they had gained. Of the 105 graduates (92%) who replied, 99 (94%) considered the supervision that they had received to be adequate, 89 (85%) received most of their teaching from other junior doctors, and only 47 believed that they had learnt a considerable amount from their consultant colleagues. Half of the doctors received little or no training in terminal care. Although 100 (95%) felt competent in dealing with various medical emergencies, cardiopulmonary resuscitation skills were less developed; only 71 (68%) were confident in using a defibrillator, and 37 (35%) considered themselves to be competent in dealing with cardiac arrhythmias. A fifth of the doctors found interviewing relatives stressful. Of the 105 doctors who replied, 77 (73%) thought that their preregistration experience had had little or no effect on their choice of career.