Essential Things to do when starting GP training in Oxford
When you first start on the training scheme there seems to be a lot of paper work to do and things you need to remember. This is a list of the 10 things that are essential but remember there is lost of help available form this office if you need assistance at any time.
- Join the Royal College of GPs as an Associate in Training (AiT). This will give you access to your e-portoflio, which you will need to start using almost immediately. There is an annual fee for this.
- Make sure you are registered on the Performers List.. Before you start you will be contacted about this, and if your first post is in General Practice you should make sure that the process has been completed before you are due to start, as if it isn’t you won’t be able to see patients. You will need to fill in a lot of paperwork, and complete an enhanced CRB check which will be sent to you.
- Fill in and return any paperwork sent to you by your employing NHS Trust, if GP is not your first post (the majority of people). They will also ask you to complete a CRB check, which is confusing as you will have completed one for the TVPCA (or whoever is replacing them from August 2018). You do have to do two CRBs!
- Find out who your Educational Supervisor is and arrange to meet with them. In Oxford, your Educational Supervisor will be the same for the full three years of training. You may not meet them on your first Clinical post, so you will need to track them down and meet with them separately.
- Find out who your Clinical Supervisor is and arrange to meet with them. This will usually be a supervising doctor on your first attachment. They can be elusive, so start searching early.
- Book your leave. It makes sense to request your leave as soon as possible if you know when you want to have time off. Unless you are at point 3 of the specialty training scale or above, you are entitled to 25 days spread over the year.
- Attend the introductory day run by the deanery. This will be at some point in the first few weeks and is usually at the Kassam Stadium. In the past, a major topic of the day has been the portfolio, so it is a good idea to have a look at this before you go.
- Start going to teaching. Teaching for ST1s is on the first and third Tuesday from 2pm at the Post Graduate Centre, John Radcliffe Hospitals. Your Clinical Teams should know that you need to attend this, and you should be free from clinical work for this period.
- Start using the e portfolio. Reflecting is big in GP training, and its best to start sooner rather than later. Porfolios are judged on both activity and quality and it is recognised that there will be a learning curve so it is best to just get cracking.