Membership survey: what you told us
In autumn 2023 we undertook our latest membership survey to give you the opportunity to share how you are feeling about the profession, your views on the services and membership benefits of the College, and where you think we can go further.
Thank you to the 4,644 surgical and dental members, in the UK and internationally, who completed the survey. Your valuable feedback is vital for shaping our work, the services we provide, and in giving you a voice with decision-makers.
Perceptions of the profession
Reflecting the current pressures surgical and dental teams are facing, you have shared mixed views about the surgical and dental professions with only a very small majority feeling more positive (40%) than negative (37%) about the state of the profession.
The biggest challenges within the workplace are seen as lack of resources, salaries, and balancing different clinical, managerial, and professional activities, along with mental health and wellbeing. Most of these are seen as bigger challenges compared to our last membership survey from 2020-21 which in part will reflect how the COVID-19 response was central to members’ experiences during the last survey.
You provided similar messages in our recent workforce census, which we have already shared and discussed with the highest decision-makers in government including Number 10. Over the coming weeks we will be setting out more detail to members about how we plan to use the workforce census findings to secure important change to support the sustainability and wellbeing of the surgical workforce. We will also shortly be setting out our asks of political parties in the run-up to the 2024 election and the need to address the challenges you have clearly articulated.
Membership benefits and services
We were pleased to see that awareness of membership benefits, our services, and functions is generally very high and we will seek to maintain this. You particularly rated our performance positively in promoting patient safety, examining trainees, providing education courses, and setting standards.
Our work in recent years to support the Women in Surgery Network (WinS), the Pride in Surgery Forum (PRiSM), and the development of our SAS Strategy, are part of our efforts to broaden our benefits and services and to help us support and represent the breadth of our membership.
Use of our Rewards Plus offer and the Confidential Support and Advice Service helpline is generally lower and while utilisation of the helpline may reflect the nature of the service, we will continue to promote awareness of and help members access the full range of our benefits and services.
You made a number of suggestions for additional benefits and services including more courses, training and learning resources. Other suggestions included improving support and benefits for international members and more career support.
There were also a higher number of ‘don’t know’ responses when members were asked to rate our roles in providing independent advice to NHS trusts, reviewing job descriptions and providing College assessors on consultant interview panels, as well as our role in providing advice to government and the NHS. While the primary audience for these functions are non-members (i.e. NHS trusts or government), we will look to improve communication and awareness of our impact.
Support across the UK and the world
In recent years we have further improved support for those in different regions across the country and for members outside the UK. With improvements in digital technology, we have also significantly improved online accessibility of many of our courses and events.
Your awareness of our offer has improved but a large number of members remain unaware that we offer courses and events across different parts of the UK and globally, tailored to different career stages, and there are local points of contact available such as our Regional Directors and Surgical Tutors. We will reflect further on your feedback and how we can raise visibility of our current regional services and what more we can do to improve our offer.
Governance reform following the Kennedy Review will also support our leadership to reflect the diversity of the surgical and dental profession, including different parts of the UK.
Methodology
We designed and delivered our membership survey through Enventure Research, an independent research agency, who conducted an online survey of our surgical and dental members which ran between 12 September and 16 October 2023. 4,644 responses were received, providing a robust sample for confident data analysis.