One of the few things GP registrars find more stressful than dealing with death are the demands of study and their exams, a survey suggests.

The survey canvassed the views of 596 registrars on a host of issues — ranging from income and sleep deprivation to how they cope with being isolated from friends and family during their training placements and managing diagnostic uncertainty (see tables below).

Almost one-quarter of GP registrars reported that “dealing with death” as a trainee was “very stressful”, compared with more than 40% of registrars who found the demands of study and exams “very stressful”, according to the 2017 survey conducted by General Practice Registrars Australia (GPRA).

But the registrars were generally positive about the quality of in-practice teaching and the level of supervision they received during their placements.