Whither or wither the medical registrar?

Abstract

In 2013, the Royal College of Physicians published The medical registrar: empowering the unsung heroes of patient care. This report showed that workload, teamwork, training and flexibility were the key factors in determining job satisfaction and morale for medical registrars. Since the report, some progress has been made in each of these four areas. Reduction in workload by development of new parts of the hospital workforce has started and the junior doctors' industrial action has forced the NHS and employers to look afresh at both workload and training aspects. The creation of chief registrars and guardians of safe working has started to create a supporting framework to improve professional working lives and training. Teamwork and support from consultants is perhaps the biggest opportunity to improve matters. However, the NHS remains inflexible and making the medical registrar post attractive to those in earlier stages of training is the biggest challenge.