The Effectiveness of the Medicorp House Officer (HO) Preparatory Course for Medical Graduates on Confidence, Readiness, and Psychological Well-Being: A Quasi-Experimental Study

After completion of 5 years of medical school training, the next step of becoming a House Officer is said to be associated with high levels of stress. It has been associated with mental health problems amongst HOs and sometimes quitting the medical line altogether. In Malaysia, the number of HOs not completing housemanship training within the allocated time is slowly declining from 86.4% (2009) to 58.8% (2012). The dropout rate is said to be increasing yearly.

This causes a lot of constraints on the HO, their family, sponsors, patients and also the country. Amongst the reason for stress is the feeling of incompetency or "fear of making mistakes". Other work-related issues include workload, time management, financial, colleague and superior related issues.

Medicorp is a company that specializes in training for junior doctors and has come up with a module to help medical graduates cope with these issues. The module is a 3-day-course named the HO Preparatory Course. It was initially the brainchild of the Islamic Medical Association of Malaysia (IMAM) but was later privatized to accommodate the demand and the running of the module and courses. The module has been re-evaluated through feedback of participants and trainers to cater to the needs and wants of the newly graduate; be it local or overseas.

Therefore, the investigators would like to assess whether this intervention module is effective in addressing HO stress, therefore consequently reduce the risk of drop out and extension in HO training.