Building Bridges to the Future of Supervision: Introducing HPSA
Carla Taylor, Executive Lead Special Projects, shares exciting news about GPSA’s new sister brand HPSA.
As many of you know, after three years leading GPSA, I recently stepped back from the CEO role to refocus my energy on strategic innovation and future-proofing what we’ve built together. I’m incredibly proud of GPSA’s continued growth, and in my new part-time role as Executive Lead – Special Projects, I’m channeling that pride into something bold: reimagining how we can make GPSA more self-sustaining (to ensure we’re here for a long time not just a good time!) by reframing our key point of difference to support high quality supervision across the broader health sector.
Introducing HPSA
This is the basis for “HPSA”, Health Professional Supervision Australasia, a second brand under the banner of GPTA Ltd - created to give the wider ecosystem of medical and allied health professionals involved in clinical supervision meaningful access to the rich resources GPSA has curated over the years.
HPSA emerged in direct response to a growing reality in modern healthcare: supervision is no longer discipline-specific. While GPSA has long championed best-practice supervision in general practice, it’s clear that the so-called “soft skills” - giving effective feedback, fostering clinical reasoning, managing conflict, teaching communication - are in fact power skills shared across all health professions. They’re essential, learnable, and too often overlooked.
Interdisciplinary collaboration is no longer a future concept. It’s happening now, in our clinics, our training programs, and our patient care teams - recent research out of Tasmania proposes GP practices as “real-world classrooms” for collaborative learning, where students, nurses, GPs, allied health professionals, and even patients engage together in meaningful, shared education (Bentley & Kerr, 2024).
What does this mean for GPSA? It means our resources, our insights, and our experience supporting GP supervisors are more relevant than ever, but not just within general practice… across the whole health sector. HPSA is our way of recognising that, and ensuring that all supervisors can benefit from the culture of learning and continuous improvement we’ve worked so hard to foster.
And perhaps most importantly, it’s about helping health professionals break free of silos. Supervision, when done well, is a powerful driver of that kind of transformation. And dynamic, engaging education - the very thing GPSA is most recognised for - is how we can ensure the delivery of quality supervision by confident, well-supported supervision teams.
So what’s my role in all this?
I’ve always believed that innovation begins with listening - really listening - to what supervisors and practices need. As Executive Lead for Special Projects, I’m working closely with our team to ensure GPTA Ltd continues to evolve, delivering the kind of responsive, evidence-based education and support that will still be relevant ten years from now. At the same time I’m designing a new format for educational delivery that meets the needs of today’s supervision teams: asynchronous, affordable, quick but meaningful.
We know the pace of healthcare isn’t slowing down. Supervisors are busy, practices are stretched, and staying compliant with ever-changing accreditation and professional development standards can be a real challenge. That’s where our latest initiative comes in.
Bite-Sized Learning That Packs a Punch
We’re currently building a Learning Management System (LMS) and developing a suite of microlearning modules through HPSA, designed to:
a) build confidence in core supervision skills like feedback, teaching communication, and fostering clinical reasoning - skills that transcend discipline and workplace; and
b) support entire practice teams in meeting their PD requirements, with accessible, digestible content that fits around the real-world demands of healthcare delivery.
Our goal here is to fill a gap and enhance supervisor confidence, help practices navigate the often-complex requirements of supervising learners with ease, and (just quietly) show the non-GP specialties how advanced general practice is in preparing supervisors for the all-important role of preparing the next generation of healthcare professionals to cater to the changing needs of our community.
We will soon be rolling out customised modules for supervisors of medical students and IMGs, but doing this all in-house on the smell of an oily rag means we can not only keep the costs low for users (and affordable for universities, PHNs and health services to purchase bulk licences) but we can explore member needs and continually refine our content to align with these while we familiarise ourselves with our new LMS. The first modules to launch will target the needs our practice manager members have shared with us, tying in with our new Bullying and Harassment Guide.
This isn’t just about ticking boxes, it’s about equipping supervisors and teams with the tools they need to thrive, not just survive, in the complex environment of modern healthcare.
I’d love your input
If you’ve ever felt that supervision deserves more recognition - or more support - I’d like to invite you into the next chapter with us. As we roll out these microlearning modules through HPSA, we’re not just ticking off competencies; we’re building confidence, reducing overwhelm, and strengthening the professional identity of those who teach, lead and support the next generation of healthcare professionals.
This initiative is grounded in the values we’ve always shared at GPSA: collaboration, care, and continuous improvement.
Whether you’re supervising a medical student, prevocational doctor or registrar, mentoring a new nurse, or guiding an interprofessional student team, your influence is profound, and the tools we’re developing are designed to support that influence in a way that’s sustainable and scalable.
To demonstrate our commitment to collaboration through codesign, I have an offer for you…
If you’re one of the first 10 people to email me your response to the below question, you’ll receive single-use access to ALL new modules as they’re published. Forever.
“How can bite-sized learning by GPSA /HPSA improve the quality of supervision in general practice and beyond?”
Whether your response is practical, philosophical or somewhere in between, your perspective matters. And if I’ve learned anything from my time with GPSA, it’s that the best ideas often come from the people doing the work - not from policy documents, but from real-world experience.
Let’s keep raising the bar, together.
Contact Carla Taylor: [email protected]