On-the-job training might be commonplace for many professions, but participating in group classes when your profession was part of the front-line response against the biggest pandemic in more than a century was always going to be a challenge.
For the junior doctors at Canberra Hospital, professional development continued throughout much of 2020, but in a different way, as COVID-19 threatened the community.
In order to do that, the hospital underwent one of its most significant shifts in online learning - one that's still expanding in 2021.
Classes and tutorials for trainee doctors have all moved online to allow for greater flexibility in their study, in addition to their work on the hospital floor and preparing for exams.
The online move has seen attendance rates for the classes as much as triple in some instances, with sessions also increasing from twice to three times per week.
The man behind the transition, deputy director of prevocational education and training, Dr Luke Streitberg, said while an online transition was in the pipeline, the impact of COVID accelerated the move.
"Junior doctors didn't need to leave the ward in order to engage with the teaching," Dr Streitberg said.
"We could then record all of the training sessions which has then become a repository of online material which has ballooned out.
"It's also there for posterity for the next group [of junior doctors]."
While the rate of training programs being made available online was expanding, it arrived in the wake of a new report showing junior doctors in Canberra reported the worst working conditions in the country.
The survey found that while 70 per cent of junior doctors would recommend the program to others, it was the lowest rate of any jurisdiction, despite a slight improvement on 2019 figures.
Canberra's trainee doctors were also the most likely to have dealt with bullying or harassment, with 46 per cent reportedly either witnessing or experiencing it.
Executive director of medical services at Canberra Hospital Nick Coatsworth said parts of the report represented a concern but there were areas for improvement.
"I want us to be better than the national average for overall satisfaction metrics and I want our junior doctors to be recommending to their colleagues interstate to come to Canberra," Dr Coatsworth said.
"One of the areas I was impressed with was that the number of trainees [in Canberra] who passed their exams [in 2020] was 80 per cent, but it was 75 per cent nationally."
An internal review published last year found Canberra's trainee physician doctors faced a disproportionately high fail rate due to concerning levels of burnout and poor workplace culture.
"There are some very notable achievements of Canberra Health Services, but at the same time, I'm looking at areas of improvement," Dr Coatsworth said.
Dr Streitberg said while exams played a major role in a junior doctor's training, it was not all of it.
"Education is critical for doctors because medicines are constantly changing and they need to be as up to date as possible," he said.
