Background: The objective was to assess cancer knowledge and perception of skills of general practice (GP) registrars in Australia. This will help design future educational resources.
Methods: We surveyed GP registrars in different Australian states.
Results: Of the registrars, 86% rated highly their ability in performing cervical smears. Registrars reported examining more patients with breast cancer, lung cancer, or melanoma than rectal cancer, cancer of mouth/tongue, or lymphoma. More registrars rated the quality of their training as reasonable or better in assisting patients to stop smoking or modify alcohol intake than in cancer-related tasks. One third rated their teaching on management of curable/incurable cancer and care of the dying as poor and/or very poor, and over half had never examined prostate or rectal cancers.
Conclusions: GP registrars generally have good knowledge of cancer. Their exposure to cases of cancer is low, and it is of concern that many have never examined common tumors in our community.