• George A Jelinek, Claire Mackinlay, and Tracey Weiland.
• Emergency Department, St Vincent's Hospital Department of Medicine, University of Melbourne, Fitzroy, VIC 3065, Australia.
• Emerg Med Australas. 2011 Feb 1;23(1):76-83.

IntroductionA 70% increase in graduating interns is projected in Australia from 2007 to 2012. Emergency medicine is a key term in the intern year. There is little information on the preparedness of EDs for this increase, and what resources will be required.MethodsSemistructured telephone interview to senior and junior ED medical staff nationwide with graded responses using a Likert scale or ordinal multi-category scales to enable quantitative analysis.Results36 of 37 targeted hospitals were surveyed. 95 of 233 (40.1%) potential interviews were completed, including 61/61 (100%) of ED Directors. Communications systems and human resource adjustments were felt to be critical, including more supervisory staff and more time dedicated for senior medical staff to supervise. Thematic analysis confirmed the priorities were staffing and infrastructure requirements.DiscussionWe recommend attention to ED communications infrastructure, an increase in rostered supervisory time for senior ED medical staff, and the provision of additional ED medical educators to teach interns.© 2011 The Authors. EMA © 2011 Australasian College for Emergency Medicine and Australasian Society for Emergency Medicine.

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