ST1 and ST2
This is often the first exposure to general practice and trainees will have to learn how to use IT and administrative systems. Trainees will have very different levels of experience and confidence, the timings below are just a suggestion.
- First 4 weeks 30 minute appointments
- Then 20 minute appointments for months 2 to 4
- Then 15 minutes for the remainder of their placement
Debriefs should occur after every patient initially, then slots held for supervising doctors at reguar intervals through out each session to enable trainees to ask ‘on the spot’ advice, every session should be followed by a 30 min debrief to work through all of the patients seen.
ST3s
Experience has shown that the following schedule of appointment times suits most ST3s- however it will need to be tailored to each individual and in particular those who have done a recent GP placement in ST2 or who are planning an early CSA may need to move to shorter appointements faster.
- Start 4 weeks 20 minute appointments
- Then 15 minutes for a further 4 weeks
- Then 10 minutes for 10 weeks before CSA ideally
There should also be plans in place for debriefing. Initially this should be 10 minutes of trainer time for each registrar patient. This can quickly be reduced to every 2 or 3 patients and finally half an hour at the end of surgery. After a couple of months you may no longer plan a specific debrief time for each surgery but there should still be a nominated GP supervising the registrar for each surgery who they can go to for help and advice.