Northumbria GP Training Programme

FAQ for Clinical Supervisors

Clinical supervisors oversee the day-to-day work of the doctors in GP training during that placement. They are expected to:

• Be the initial point of contact in issues relating to the specific post.

   

• hold formative meetings with the doctor in GP training at the beginning, middle and end of their placement.
• use WPBA assessment tools as learning opportunities, formative assessments and to provide evidence towards the record of competence progression collected in the training e-portfolio.
• complete a Clinical Supervisors Report (CSR) at the end of the placement. If a doctor in GP training is in an integrated post working concurrently in more than one specialty, then each clinical supervisor will complete a CSR.
• Identify doctors in GP training who are struggling at work or with the e-portfolio and flag this up with the Training Programme

The Fishbase portfolio         http://www.fishbase.co.uk/

You will be provided with login details for the portfolio in advance of the post. The RCGP have an excellent manual / how to guide for the portfolio and an e-module around completing a Clinical Supervisors Report available at

https://www.rcgp.org.uk/training-exams/training/information-for-deaneries,-supervisors-and-trainers.aspx

If you are having problems gaining access to the portfolio please contact Paula.Armstrong at the NGPTP  

e-Portfolio naturally occurring evidence

How many learning log entries are optimal?

Aiming for 2-3 a week is a good start. However, quality is more important than quantity and the entries should demonstrate reflective learning.

Doctors in GP training need to click “share” for you to be able to see the entry. Sometimes they will have written the entries but not shared them yet- encourage them to do this in a timely manner.

What do I need to do with the entries?

Doctors in GP training like their supervisors to read and comment on and/or validate every log entry – this is not necessary. It is perfectly acceptable to “sample” log entries every couple of weeks or so if the docotr in GP training is progressing at an appropriate rate.

Linkage- the doctor in GP training will link any entry to up to a maximum of 3 curriculum topics. You can review these, supplement and change these if you feel appropriate.

Validate- There are 13 competencies that the doctor in GP training needs to demonstrate evidence of over the programme.

In validating evidence, the Supervisor is confirming that the evidence is of good enough quality for others to use in making assessments of performance, i.e. that it relates to the chosen competency area and shows meaningful reflection. Validation does not imply that competence has been achieved.

A learning log entry can be linked to any (and even all 13) of the competencies.

This step can ONLY be done by the supervisors but sometimes a doctor in GP training will offer suggestions in the entry itself regarding which competency they feel the entry covers. You can agree or disagree with this.

There are hyperlinks from the competencies so that you can see what the competency pertains to.

Validation of entries helps you when you come to compile the CSR as you can review the competency areas coverage and use the evidence to justify your views and decisions.

Mark as read- once you have marked the entry as read it is locked and the doctor in GP training is no longer able to edit it. There may be occasions where you wish them to offer more information or more reflection in an entry- in this case do not mark the entry as read until you are happy that it has been completed.

Work Place Based Assessment

What do we need to do and how may?

The portfolio logs what assessments have been done and indicates the MINIMUM number of assessments per post. This can be found under “Evidence”.

Ensure that the ST year and review number is correct for the current post.

MSF- In hospital posts doctors in GP training are required to ask 5 clinicians with different job titles who have worked with them. They will do 2 further MSF’s over the training while they are in General Practice posts.

Who can do an assessment? ST4 or above or appropriately qualified ancillary staff

CS report

The CSR is a short-structured report that groups the 13 GP competencies into 4 main areas- Relationships, Diagnostics, Management and Professionalism.

You must enter text into the comment box for each question to justify your decision. It is best practice to utilise the ePortfolio entries to provide evidence for your conclusions (you can search for validated entries for each competency and refer to these to justify decisions)

Recording meetings and issues

Educators notes

This section allows for trainers, clinical supervisors, educational supervisors and Deanery/LETB assessment leads/administrators to enter comments in ePortfolio. This could include a note about interim meetings that don’t fit easily anywhere else or additional information you feel is important that you can’t enter anywhere else. Each entry will be date stamped, with the name of the person who entered it and a subject field. Doctors in GP training will be able to view everything that is entered in this section, but will only be able to respond to it through their learning log. It will also be available to the ARCP Panels.

A doctor in GP training can access educators notes so be mindful of what is recorded.

Educators note - how might they be used?

Recording meetings

Educational prescriptions

Recording remedial advice

Entries of concern

Recording contacts (e.g. a log of requests to arrange a meeting/ requests to do more log entries)

PDP

The personal development plan contains objectives that docotrs in GP training have set themselves and that have been agreed at review time, which will be relevant to their continuing professional development. They can assign timescales to their objectives and mark them as achieved once completed.

The PDP should be SMART and a living document.

Doctors in Difficulty?

How can I look back at previous posts/ assessments?

A log of the evidence from previous posts is saved under “evidence”. You may need to change the ST year and the review number on the drop-down box.  Assessment information is also stored under “posts” and can be accessed by clicking “view” on the assessment column of the required post.

Educators notes can provide useful information about any additional support that has been offered. Meetings from Training Porgramme Support (TPS) meetings will be logged here along with educational prescriptions.

What help is there?

If you have concerns about a doctor in GP training please do not hesitate to contact the scheme to discuss further.

Local Training

Northumbria GP Training Programme provides regular half day training sessions in the IT labs at Northumbria University, Coach Lane Campus

TPDs (Training Programme Directors) are happy to answer any questions that CS’s have about using the GP e-portfolio