Maxillofacial senior house officer posts: the trainee's perspective.

A questionnaire was sent out to all the maxillofacial senior house officers in the UK. The purpose of this was to evaluate their perceptions on working conditions, supervision, education and career aspirations. A high proportion (73 percent) returned questionnaires, and from the results of this it seems apparent that there are shortcomings in the supervision and education of SHOs. Based on these findings, a mandatory education programme is advocated that should be recorded in a logbook together with all operative procedures.