The transition from learner to provider/teacher: The learning needs of new orthopaedic consultants

Detailed postal questionnaire to new consultants using open and closed questions.Open questionnaire to established consultants to validate new consultant responses.Respondents felt their clinical training was good and were generally confident in most clinical skills although some perceived deficiencies in more complex procedures and specialist areas. Most lacked confidence in many managerial skills. These perceptions were verified by established consultants. Although no relationship was found between total training time or quality of training with confidence, extra training in specific sub-specialities improved confidence in these areas. While most established consultants thought that mentorship would be useful for new consultants, only 52% of them shared this view.Training and experience in management should be given greater emphasis. There may be a need for specific, targeted training in complex procedures for doctors who experience lack of confidence in these areas. Mentorship should be offered to new consultants and recognised in the job-plan of the new consultant contract.Every year in the UK over a thousand doctors move from training grades to consultant posts. Educational research tends to focus on training grades and there is a relative dearth of information on the problems these new consultants have in relation to their new roles particularly their perceived learning needs in relation to clinical and management issues. Considering the relatively sudden change from learner to teacher-provider and the likely challenges this may pose, it is not clear to what extent new consultants in their early years feel supported by senior colleagues acting in a mentor or teaching role to aid them with this transition. The recent shortening of training for UK consultant posts following the Calman report [1] in the mid 1990s and the reduction in working hours during training leading up to the full implementation of the European Working Time Directive have led to concerns tha