Medical Audit: The Views of Junior Doctors

Abstract

Reports exploratory research into the reasons why many junior doctors are critical of medical audit; the extent to which consultants are aware of juniors′ views; and what might be done to make audit more acceptable to juniors – using structured interviews amongst staff (28 consultants and 34 juniors) in four district general hospitals in South‐East England. Junior doctors were critical of audit for five main reasons: the additional work involved; the audit cycle being longer than their job contracts; the topics reflecting their consultants′ interests and not theirs; doubt about the effectiveness of audit; and audit meetings being boring, intimidating and even incriminatory. Some consultants were well aware of these problems, but others were not. To increase the support of juniors, audit needs to: involve them more and be more participatory; be organized better; be less of a trial and more supportive; recognize the extra demands on juniors′ time. Offers suggestions for the successful implementation of medical audit.