Quality of training essential to a robust GP workforce
Recent attention to the sustainability of the general practice (GP) workforce has highlighted the long and bumpy road travelled by medical students and junior doctors heading for primary care careers. While innovative strategies to increase interest in GP training tackle big picture barriers, such as placement opportunities and funding disparity, the focus on access to workforce is such that the quality of workforce might be seen as a secondary concern. As the national peak for GP supervisors and training practices, GPSA is determined to address this issue.
GPSA has long been focused on supporting GP/RG supervisors and training practices with best practice resources that encourage and enable optimal training experiences.
“Where the Colleges set the GP training agenda, we provide innovative best practice tools to help supervision teams deliver that agenda with confidence,” says GPSA Chair, Dr Srishti Dutta.
“A focal point of GPSA’s mission is to enhance the quality of training experiences through a system of continuous improvement.”
To this end, GPSA is leading a project with a collaboration of GP training experts from across Australia to land on and promote the elements that define quality training in the widely variable general practice context.
“We have been blessed with incredible engagement from a broad range of GP training experts. Their input has been instrumental in developing a quality improvement tool designed to empower and elevate GP training experiences,” says Associate Professor Samia Toukhsati, GPSA Director of Research and Policy.
The tool in question is based on the GP Clinical Learning Environment (GPCLE) framework for training developed through an earlier GPSA research project.
“To ensure we arrive on a really valuable resource for each of our members and the sector more broadly, we’re now asking everyone involved in GP training – learners (medical students and GPiTs), educators, supervisors and practice teams - to test our GPCLE tool,” says Dr Dutta.
“We know that general practice is an incredibly rewarding career, but to positively influence medical students and junior doctors in this regard we need to always be striving for quality in the training experiences we offer. I would encourage everyone involved in GP training to play a part in making general practice the specialty of choice through this focus on quality.”
To participate and test the tool, we invite you to complete the GPCLE survey.
For more information, please contact GPSA on the details below.
Associate Professor Samia Toukhsati
Director of Research and Policy, GP Supervision Australia
M 0416 011 826