New Austrian medical training regulations

In Austria, there is an ongoing discussion on how to retain young doctors in our medical systems. Many of them wish to go abroad for further training and better salaries. This is in line with the latest “hospital barometer” of the Deutsche Krankenhausinstitut (DKI) [1] in Germany, which shows the results of a yearly representative survey of German hospitals covering topical concerns related to health and hospital policy. According to the most recent barometer, 58% of German hospitals face serious problems in filling medical trainee positions. Considering that the Robert Bosch Stiftung forecasts a reduction in the number of people in the core working age range from 20 to 65 years by 6.1 million to 6.5 million people as early as 2030 [2], it rapidly becomes clear that attracting and retaining talent will be a major priority. To this end, the Austrian medical training regulations have been restructured to fit the future needs of Austrian “generation Y” medical trainees. The main objective of the restructuring is to increase the quality of medical training to the extent that it will be competitive with training programs in other countries. This in turn confronts employers with serious challenges [3]. …