Playing the numbers game – how do we get the numbers right when we are dealing with people, not mathematics?

A challenge in all medical schools is how to keep medical student numbers consistent across all years of the medical degree and produce a consistent number of medical graduates to join the healthcare workforce. We are aware from large Australian data sets of the high burden of health issues, particularly mental health issues in medical students. This necessitates time away from the medical course and is not something that can be accurately predicted. When combined with academic progress issues due to unsatisfactory progress this can mean a variation in approximately 1-10% students in any one year requiring to repeat a year or take a year out to focus on their health.

Purpose/Objectives: To promote discussion and ideas on how to manage these issues and what can be done to further support medical students to develop resilience and lifelong strategies for well-being.

Issues for exploration/ideas for discussion: What are the experiences of medical schools with regard to managing student numbers? What attrition rate is acceptable from Year 1 to final year and how are graduation numbers maintained at expected levels? To what extent are/should student support be separated from decisions about admission and progression? What could be done to promote resilience and enhance wellbeing in the medical student population (a population well known to require this)?