UK Foundation-Year 1 Doctors—A Survey Uncovering Infrequent Theater Experience Regardless of Time, Place, or Surgical Specialty

IntroductionDoctors in the United Kingdom are expected to choose a broad career path after approximately 16 months of finishing medical school. We aim to investigate how much surgical exposure foundation-year (FY)1 doctors would have by the end of their first year after finishing medical school and whether this is sufficient to make an informed decision on a career in surgery.MethodCross-sectional survey via a 10-part questionnaire sent to 1341 FY1 doctors at the end of their first clinical year across secondary and tertiary hospitals within 9 foundation schools in the United Kingdom.ResultsA total of 389 FY1 doctors responded. More than half (52.2%) of the FY1 doctors were unable to attend theater more than 5 times during their rotation. Length of surgical rotation, surgical specialty, type of hospital, and prior interest in surgery had no significant effect on theater attendance (p > 0.05). More than half (50.9%) of the FY1 doctors did not feel like they had had sufficient experience to make an informed decision about a career in surgery.DiscussionPoor theater attendance is common among FY1 doctors, which may lead to ill-informed specialty career decisions. The Modernising Medical Careers program and European Working Time Directive are likely contributing to this lack of exposure. Protected and logged theater sessions for all FY1 doctors could ensure sufficient exposure. New initiatives need to be employed to increase surgical exposure among FY1 doctors to ensure that specialty choices in their second FY are informed ones. The proposed changes to the United Kingdom’s junior doctor’s training in the “Shape of Training” report may mean that changes in exposure in the early years are even more pertinent.