Enthusiastic welcome for junior doctor study

Junior doctors at a recent research symposium were keen to find out more about a well-being study due to start at Health Education England sites across Wessex in the next month.

“After months of work behind the scenes on important aspects like ethics approvals, it was exciting for the researchers to explain this project to junior doctors and get such an enthusiastic and interested response,” said Peter Hockey, Postgraduate Dean at HEE Wessex, who is jointly leading the project.

The survey is unique because it will capture the real-time experiences of junior doctors. Researchers will use the MyDay web-based survey tool to collect anonymous data from up to 2000 local junior doctors, creating data about the well-being of junior doctors as a group, and what drives it.

Doctors who volunteer to do the survey will list tasks they did in three short windows of time, and how they felt doing each task. They will also complete surveys outside work hours.

Junior doctors Matt Hammerton, Freddy Beer and Ros Jarvis who are research fellows on the MyDay research team presented the MyDay pilot to their colleagues at the symposium at HEE's Wessex headquarters.

Junior doctors at the event responded positively to the idea of the survey, and the overall view it would create about their work and wellbeing, with most indicating that they would be willing to take part.

The MyDay research project is sponsored by HEE Wessex and led by researchers Amanda Goodall (Cass Business School, City, University of London) and Rhema Vaithianathan (Centre for Social Data Analytics, Auckland University of Technology, NZ).

The pilot MyDay survey will start in the next month and researchers plan to complete a full survey of up to 2000 junior doctors by December.

For more information:  https://myday.aut.ac.nz/