GP ST3 Practice Visits – 19th May 2021

Date/Time: Wednesday 19^th May

Location: Your Practice/Organisation, via Zoom/Teams or in person

Our cohort of GP ST3s is nearing the end of their training. We want to give them the opportunity to understand the rich diversity of GP roles available and are asking for practices/organisations who could help showcase themselves.

We need you to volunteer your time to help us do this and contribute to the education of our trainees.

You might represent a GP practice, a primary care organisation, or be looking to recruit GPs. You may have posts available and be actively recruiting, but for many, this is an opportunity to introduce your organisation to new GPs who may not be aware of you, with an eye on potential future recruitment.

“Practice Visits” has been a longstanding part of the Bolton GP Training scheme, and a popular way to recruit newly-qualified GPs. The necessities of pandemic-working mean we have had to rethink how we allow both trainees and organisations to still benefit from this unique networking opportunity. Based on current restrictions, we are planning based on current working patterns; but if your organisation would be happy to host trainees in person, then we are happy to support this too.

We ask for 30-60 minutes of your time. In it, you will host an online video-conference that contains a presentation about your organisation, your values and what you seek in your staff. Feel free to use your own style – whether it be a PowerPoint show, an informal discussion or even a live “walk-through” of your practice. We will be encouraging the trainees to think of questions to ask that help them understand the nature of your work and workplace, and to ask these questions during your session in open discussion. You can also use the opportunity to advertise any posts you may have now or are planning in future.

The trainees’ schedule is open for the day, so events can be hosted from 0800-1800, at a time that suits you. If you are prepared to, you could offer multiple timeslots, but we are hopeful to be able to offer a spread of different organisations over the day.

Ideally, we would hope for a clinician, or someone able to answer questions from GPs about the day-to-day workings of your organisation. Perhaps you are an ex-Bolton ST3 who did the visits yourself!

We want trainees to have experience of how to get to know a practice – as applying for many GP roles in unlike other recruitment. We are keen that they see that practices have personalities, and that a happy work-life balance is achieved by seeking the kind of work and workplace that you are suited to.

Name recognition by trainees is important; many of our newly-qualified GPs report that they can struggle to discern where to start when looking for employment, as it can be hard to find out about practices. If you are looking now, or in the next few years to recruit, trainees will remember practices that took time to show them around (even virtually!).

One week before the event, we will create a timetable of events for the day. For Zoom-based calls, we can share your link directly; for MS Teams we will ask trainees to contact your designated person in order to send an invite out.

We will share the timetable of events via email and on the training programme website.

Please email gpeducatorsbolton@gmail.com with the following details:

• Practice/organisation name and your role within it
• Website details
• Key contact email for us to arrange and coordinate details
• What time you would be prepared to host. If you can offer several options, please do so (and indicate your preferred) as this will help trainees visit as many practices as possible.
• Whether Zoom/Teams is the preferred video conference method
• If offering an in-person visit, any details (such as capacity limit) that we would need to share with those interested.