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Medical trainees in Australia generally rate the quality of their training highly, but unacceptable behaviours from senior medical staff and the public persist, the 2025 Medical Training Survey (MTS) report found.

The MTS, an initiative of the Medical Board of Australia, is a longitudinal survey tracking the quality of medical training. Now in its seventh year, the MTS provides insights into the training experience.

According to the 2025 results, 89% of trainees rated the quality of their clinical supervision and 86% rated the quality of their teaching and education sessions, as good/excellent.

There have also been improvements in clinical supervision, orientation, teaching and education, the report found, with 83% of trainees recommending their training position and workplace to others.

Despite these positive signs, some elements of the training experience have proved resistant to change, alongside emerging challenges for stakeholders to address. Trainees continue to experience or witness unacceptable behaviour. Over time, they have become less likely to name senior medical staff as the source and more likely to implicate patients, patients’ families and carers. In 2025 both groups were cited by 46% of trainees.

“It seems the deficits in the culture of medicine reported by trainees are firmly anchored to wider community attitudes and behaviours,” said Dr Susan O’Dwyer, Medical Board of Australia chair.

The reported rate of bullying, discrimination, harassment (including sexual harassment) and racism is unchanged at an average of 30%. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander trainees the rate was nearly twice that (56%), with 38% reporting they experienced and/or witnessed racism, according to the report.

“Work across the profession and the health sector to improve cultural safety and address racism remains urgent and essential,” said Dr O’Dwyer.