Half/Full Day Release

For trainees undertaking a GP practice placement in their ST1/ST2 year

If you are undertaking a GP practice placement, you will attend the First GP Group half day release teaching which takes place most Thursday afternoon’s 2-5pm. The programme runs for 12 months from August to July and there are approximately 36 teaching sessions in the year.

You are expected to attend all teaching sessions unless you are on call, or on leave. Less than full time trainees should attend on a pro-rata basis.

This is an opportunity for you to work with colleagues at the same stage as yourself, to understand and develop the complex and demanding skills required by the competent GP. The emphasis in the teaching group is on analysing and improving these wider skills, which are necessary both in every consultation and also in working within a multidisciplinary team.

Communicating effectively with patients is a key skill for General Practice. Part of each afternoon is devoted to understanding the central importance of how you can organise and manage each consultation better. Through a combination of theoretical presentations, and group work, you will develop your understanding and skills in working with patients, in a safe setting. You will of course be developing this with your trainers in the practices too, but working as part of a group enables you to observe how very differently yet competently other doctors handle a consultation. There is a great deal to learn from experiencing and discussing one another´s styles.

If there is no teaching session scheduled you should do self study in the practice.

Trainees in hospital placements for their full ST1 year, and trainees in ST2 hospital placements should attend hospital group teaching.

This runs on Thursday for a full day 9am to 4pm.

There are 24 hospital group sessions in each 12 month period, trainees will need to attend 4-10 sessions during each 4/6 months post depending on the medical specialty:

• A&E, O&G, Paediatrics, Paediatrics A&E, Oncology, Palliative Care (St Luke’s Hospice only), GUM – 4 days in a 4 months post, 6 days in a 6 months post.
• All other specialties – 6 days in a 4 months post, 10 days in a 6 months post.

Usually the format of the day is a speaker in the morning 9.00-11.30am, a debrief session 11.30-12.30pm, and trainee led teaching in the afternoon 1.45-4.00pm.

You are expected to attend the above number of sessions for your speciality, unless you are on-call or on leave. Less than full time trainees should attend on a pro-rata basis.

Your final 12 months of training (ST3) will be spent in General Practice.

You are expected to attend Thursday afternoon teaching sessions 2-5pm. There are approximately 36 teaching sessions during the year.  Teaching starts at 2:00pm and ends at 5:00pm.

Less than full time trainees are expected to attend on a pro-rata basis.

The main aims of the ST3 year are to pass the CSA and prepare for independent practice. The sessions focus on RCA preparation using some clinical topics. There are also some post CSA sessions directed towards increasing the knowledge base of the business of General Practice and to prepare for independent practice. Expert outside resources are used for some sessions. Examples of topics normally covered include a finance, CV and finding the right job, assertiveness training, GP contracts etc.

If there is no teaching session scheduled please do self study in the practice.

Attendance at teaching sessions is recorded centrally for ARCP.

You should attend all teaching sessions unless you are on-call, or absent due to sick or annual leave, religious holiday. Less than full time trainees should attend teaching on a pro-rata basis.

If you are having problems in arranging to attend the required number of teaching sessions, please let us know.

We would encourage you to make a reflective learning log entry after every GP Teaching session, actively thinking about the session helps to reinforce the learning and may identify things you need to check again or read up on.

Please add the entries to Supporting documentation, CPD.

ARCP panels will expect to see a reasonable spread of entries on teaching sessions attended for every post.

The Training Programme Directors welcome feedback at any stage, in person or by e-mail. As well as contributing to the formal evaluation surveys, it is very helpful if, at the end of each teaching session, you leave five minutes for evaluation. Please give this some genuine thought so that we can enhance the future development of the course. If you feel something was good or bad, please tell us specifically what made it that way. We want to adhere to models of good practice and change things that don’t.