A comparison of trainee and trainer clinical experience.

The results are presented of a survey comparing patients seen in the surgery by trainer and trainee during a six-month attachment.STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES WERE SHOWN AS FOLLOWS: the trainee saw a younger group of patients, a higher proportion of whom were male; the trainee saw fewer musculoskeletal disorders, fewer gynaecological disorders, and gave less contraceptive care. He saw more acute respiratory tract infections. Despite there being no direction of trainee workload, some of the difference in clinical workload significantly altered over a six-month period. However, trainee and trainer experience of many clinical conditions was not significantly different.We suggest that trainees and trainers should agree at the start of a traineeship on the aspects of clinical care in which experience should be obtained. Regular monitoring of the trainee's clinical workload would then enable deficiencies to be identified and corrected by direction of appropriate patients to the trainee.