Objective: To gain insight into factors involved in attrition from hospital-based medical specialty training and future career plans of trainees who prematurely left their specialty training programme.
Design: Nationwide online survey study.
Setting: Postgraduate education of all hospital-based specialties in the Netherlands.
Participants: 174 trainees who prematurely left hospital-based medical specialty training between January 2014 and September 2017.
Main outcome measures: Factors involved in trainees' decisions to leave specialty training and their subsequent career plans.
Results: The response rate was 38%. Of the responders, 25% left their programme in the first training year, 50% in year 2-3 and 25% in year 4-6. The most frequently reported factors involved in attrition were: work-life balance, job content, workload and specialty culture. Of the leaving trainees, 66% switched to another specialty training programme, of whom two-thirds chose a non-hospital-based training programme. Twelve per cent continued their career in a non-clinical role and the remainder had no specific plans yet.
Conclusions: This study provides insight in factors involved in attrition and in future career paths. Based on our findings, possible interventions to reduce attrition are: (1) enable candidates to develop a realistic view on job characteristics and demands, prior to application; (2) provide individual guidance during specialty training, with emphasis on work-life balance and fit with specialty.
Keywords: future career; hospital based specialty training; trainee attrition.
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