What’s involved in being a supervisor/training facility?
As most of a GP registrar’s training takes place in a general practice, GP supervisors play an essential role in their development into a confident and competent GP.
Supervisors have four key areas of responsibility:
- Supervision: Supervisors are required to be on-site for a percentage of the time the registrar is in practice, depending on their stage of training.
- Teaching: Supervisors are required to provide in-practice teaching to registrars. This may include formal teaching activities, as well as informal activities such as direct observation, corridor consultations and case audits. The amount of teaching required will depend on the registrars’ stage of training.
- Continuing professional development: Supervisors are required to maintain their continuing professional development as an educator. They can participate in a variety of CPD activities, which are valuable educational and networking opportunities
- Administration: Supervisors are require to participate in activities such as providing formal feedback to registrars, maintaining activity logs, and advertising training vacancies.
More specific details of these requirements are outlined in the standards and guidelines below.
Standards and guidelines
Guidelines on supervision and teaching are developed by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) and the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM). These standards ensure a safe, quality training experience for GP registrars.
All GP Synergy training posts and supervisors are accredited against these standards.
These requirements, and those required by GP Synergy, are summarised in the GP Synergy Codes, Principles and Recommendations:
- Codes, Principles and Recommendations (available from our Policies and Forms page)
- Royal Australian College of General Practice Practitioners Vocational Training Standards
- Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine Vocational Training Standards
Registrar placement process
Before practices apply to become a training practice, it is important they understand that becoming accredited does not guarantee they will receive a GP registrar.
GP Synergy’s registrar placement process is based on an open-market style system. Every 6 months accredited training practices advertise training placements. Registrars can then apply for those vacancies.
To ensure appropriate distribution of registrars around our regions, registrars are required to train in locations across their home region (Sydney or New England/Northwest). This means registrars may only be able to train at a particular practice for 6 or maybe 12 months at the most.
In our Sydney region in particular, there may be more training vacancies than there are registrars available. This means that some practices may not attract a GP registrar to their practice.
Checklist for practices before applying
Before applying to become a training practice, ask yourself the following questions:
- Am I ready to commit to teaching?
- Do I have the time each week in my schedule to set aside for teaching?
- Is the practice AGPAL/GPA accredited?
- Is there sufficient consulting space available for a registrar to work in?
- Does my practice offer a wide range of clinical services and procedures to ensure the registrar has a positive experience in general practice?
- Have I read the GP Synergy Codes, Principles and Recommendations document and agree to the requirements of teaching?
- Am I comfortable with the understanding that being accredited does not guarantee I will receive a registrar?
If you have answered yes to all of the above, you are ready to apply for accreditation as a training practice with GP Synergy!
For further information, please contact us on 1300 477 963 or info@gpsynergy.com.au.
