Trainees should only attend teaching if they are well enough to participate. Rest and recuperation when ill are important, so this should be prioritised. Doctors are the worst patients!

Yes. Teaching sessions are paid, and attendance is expected in the same way as a clinical session. If you are taking a day off, and half of it is a scheduled teaching session, it would still count as a full day of annual leave (not 0.5 days)

Trainees should be aware that administrative staff at Trusts and GP practices check to ensure trainees have attended teaching when they have not requested leave on educational sessions.

We would not advise treating teaching sessions any differently than clinical sessions. If you need to book a medical appointment, then leave for that will be granted regardless of the type of session missed as a result.

The PCME hosting the session will use their discretion to determine if the attendance was meaningful and record as appropriate. In general, if more than half of a session is missed, then a trainee is likely to be recorded as absent. Please bear in mind that some sessions may not be able to admit unexpected latecomers.

The amount of clinical-to-educational time is fixed in a trainee’s job plan, and over an entire placement should average out to the amount stated.

We would encourage trainees to proactively consider how to best utilise educational time where there is no scheduled teaching, and agree this with their Educational Supervisor.

Trainers may offer additional educational time at the start of placements and around examination times, and thus it may be reasonable to provide a clinical session at a later date in return.

If a trainee feels that the clinical/educational split is not fair, then they should discuss that with the trainer/educational supervisor in the first instance, and with the TPD in cases where this does not resolve the issue.

Firstly, you should consider your job plan and what arangements are made in your speciality for teaching – many specialities invite trainees to their departmental teaching or other events of clinical value which account. for the educational portion of the contract.

Where educational time is scheduled but there is no session, trainees can use the time for educational activity. This should be logged in their portfolio.

Trainees should consider their PDP and own needs, and proactively arrange activity with an educational focus.

These might include (but are most certainly not limited to) attendance at an outpatient clinic, time with community/multidisclipinary teams, “reflective surgeries”, e-learning, revision/practice groups.

If nothing has been arranged, a Trainer may suggest a clinical session as each and every patient contact is a potential learning opportunity.

The AKT and SCA/CSA exams are part of the GP ST programme, and Professional Leave will be granted for these days. Other examinations (such as the DCH, DFFP, DRCOG and others) are not considered part of training for the MRCGP, and study leave should be used to attend these.

Don’t worry! Let your Education Supervisor know by email as soon as you can.

We would strongly encourage all trainees to make a learning log for every teaching session they attend, in order to provide evidence of learning. This evidence would be sufficient to demonstrate attendance and would supercede an incorrect register. Carole can amend the record if contacted.

If your Educational Supervisor/trainer is aware of what you are doing, there should be no problem.

We encourage LTFT and out-of-sync trainees to consider all three ST1, ST2 and ST3 teaching programmes and attend any session they feel may be appropriate. This may need discussion with supervisors to plan changes to clinical sessions.

Keeping a clear learning log will be the main source of a record of attendance for Educational Supervisors of LTFT/out-of-sync trainees.

If you are working a night shift, we wouldn’t recommend attending teaching when you need to be sleeping. Inform your ES and the PCME team if you note that you’ll not be able to attend a future session.

If you are rostered to be on-call during a teaching session, it depends on what your department says. We ask that teaching be “bleep-free”, so you would need to be sure that clinical cover was available for your department during the session. There may be arrangements within the department already, or you may want to consider asking a colleague. You could also consider swapping on-call sessions to be able to attend although we wouldn’t expect you to do this. If you are on-call, this would be an acceptable reason to not attend teaching.

In an ideal world, rotas would be designed to reflect the needs of trainees to maximise the ability of trainees attend teaching, but this is a complexity that isn’t generally achievable at present. Where we notice a significant absence from a particular specialty, we do try and work with them to reduce the impact on trainees.

Zero days are added to rosters to ensure adequate rest before the next period of duty. Trainees are not expected to attend teaching if they are on a scheduled zero day. They may choose to do so if they wish, but should not be pressured into doing so.