GP supervisors assessing GP registrars

Abstract

Background General practice supervisors are increasingly being expected to assess their registrars. Objective In this article we explore the issues this raises for supervisors, and discuss the literature, which suggests that global assessments are the most accurate and feasible. Discussion We suggest the following guidelines for supervisors: inform registrars at the beginning of the term about how and when they will be assessed; be clear that the aim is to decide if the registrars' practice is safe for patients and appropriate for their stage of training; observe registrars at work; make an initial judgement of registrars' performance; test the initial judgement on performance applying qualitative research methods to improve trustworthiness and reduce potential biases; use the working diagnosis of registrar performance to guide the level of support and clinical oversight needed and flag registrars who require further assessment by educational organisations for remediation decisions.

Keywords

Author Keywords

education Assessment General Practice Medical

Index Keywords

clinical competence human procedures Humans Australia general practice general practitioner General Practitioners professional competence organization and management health care quality standards Quality Assurance, Health Care

Author Affiliations

General Practice Education and Training Ltd, Canberra, ACT, Australia

Southern GP Training, Churchill, vic, Australia

Funding & Acknowledgements

No funding information

References 10 References

1 Primary Rural and Remote Training Standards for Supervisors and Teaching Posts, (2013)

2 Vocational Training Standards, (2013)

3 Kennedy, Tara J.T., Towards a tighter link between supervision and trainee ability, Medical Education, 43, 12, pp. 1126-1128, (2009)

4 Byrnes, Patrick D., Are they safe in there? Patient safety and trainees in the practice, Australian Family Physician, 41, 1-2, pp. 26-29, (2012)

5 Hays, Richard B., Is insight important? Measuring capacity to change performance, Medical Education, 36, 10, pp. 965-971, (2002)

6 Hodges, Brian D., Difficulties in recognizing one's own incompetence: Novice physicians who are unskilled and unaware of it, Academic Medicine, 76, 10 SUPPL., pp. S87-S89, (2001)

7 Kruger, Justin, Unskilled and unaware of it: How difficulties in recognizing one's own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 6, pp. 1121-1134, (1999)

8 Newble, David I., The effect of assessments and examinations on the learning of medical students, Medical Education, 17, 3, pp. 165-171, (1983)

9 Munro, N., What are the key attributes of a good general practice trainer: A Delphi study, Education for General Practice, 9, 2, pp. 263-270, (1998)

10 Boendermaker, Peter M., Core characteristics of the competent general practice trainer, a Delphi study, Advances in Health Sciences Education, 8, 2, pp. 111-116, (2003)

GP supervisors assessing GP registrars - theory and practice

How to Cite