Who answers the survey?

Doctors in training who are in GMC approved training posts on the census date are included in the survey. This includes:

• Foundation trainees
• Core trainees
• Higher specialty training including specialist registrars and GP trainees
• Fixed term specialty training appointment (FTSTA) trainees
• Locum appointment for training (LAT) trainees
• Military trainees
• Trainees in clinical lecturer and academic clinical fellowship posts
• Out of programme trainees (OOPT) on an approved programme in the UK
• Post-CCT training towards a sub specialty
• Trainees working for non-NHS organisations, eg occupational medicine, palliative medicine and pharmaceutical medicine.

Doctors who are not in training on the census date, for example doctors on maternity leave or who have been awarded their CCT, are not included in the survey.

All named postgraduate clinical and educational supervisors in the UK are eligible to take the trainer survey.

• Clinical supervisors oversee a trainee's clinical work throughout a placement. They give feedback during the placement and provide a review of the trainee's performance to help educational supervisors decide if the trainee progresses to the next stage of their training.
• Educational supervisors are responsible for the overall supervision and management of a trainee's development during a placement or series of placements. They help the trainee plan their training, achieve agreed learning outcomes and bring together all relevant evidence to determine if the trainee progresses to the next stage of their training.

Although these two roles are distinct, trainers may have responsibility for both.