Fellowship Support Program Newsletter

• In-practice teaching standards and expectations of supervisors
• Providing feedback to your registrar
• Supporting your registrar
• Support for supervisors
• Supervisor remuneration and scheduled assessments
• Things to note – upcoming opportunities and updates
• Resources

In-practice teaching:

Minimum teaching times for a registrar:

• GPT1/GPT2 (FSP Year 1) - 1 hour per fortnight or 30 minutes per week.
• GPT3/GPT4 (FSP Year 2) - 1 hour per month.

Scheduled and uninterrupted formal one-on-one teaching sessions:

• Address registrar's learning needs e.g. observation of consultations, review of medical records, feedback, assessment & critical incident review.
• Teaching sessions should ideally be in the first hour of consulting session or before they start in the morning to avoid interruptions or participants running late. 

Suggested in-practice teaching activities:

• Direct observation
• Problem case discussion
• Random case analysis
• Inbox review
• Teaching topics
• Informal activities such as case discussions throughout the day, group teaching sessions with other registrars, procedural skills education, cultural education, provision of feedback.
• Teaching plans: Initially completed in the Early Assessment of Safety and Learning (EASL) Pack by the primary supervisor, this should document a teaching schedule and any planned activities during the teaching sessions. Please note this is different from a Learning Plan which should be completed by the registrar on the FSP portal to record their learning needs. Of course, the registrar’s Learning Plan is the basis for individualizing the Teaching Plan. The Teaching Plan should be a dynamic document, altered when further learning needs are discovered as the registrar sees patients.

Expectations of supervisors

• Regularly review the clinical supervision plan developed at the beginning of your registrar's program and change when needed e.g. when practice circumstances change.
• It’s important to periodically audit a sample of your registrar's records to detect if they are failing to call you when they should.  A "Random Chart Audit" during a teaching session or review of specialist referrals or pathology and imaging results may detect circumstances where a registrar inappropriately referred instead of seeking help from supervisor.

Providing feedback to your registrar is central to the work of a supervisor. An effective supervisor – registrar relationship is one that operates as an alliance where the registrar perceives the supervisor as acting in their best interest when providing them with feedback.

Feedback can and should be provided as frequently as possible – not just when completing assessments - e.g. after problem case discussions, observing a consult, ad-hoc encounters or random case analysis.

It's usually best to ask your registrar for their own assessment of their performance first to uncover any issues they had themselves before you give them feedback.

Your registrar may be reluctant to share their weaknesses if they feel it may impact on their training and career progression. If a ‘no fault’ culture is encouraged in the team, and you demonstrate your own vulnerability and seek the registrar's feedback on your own clincal practice, this will establish a feedback culture.

Supporting your registrar's wellbeing

It's important for a supervisor or any member of the supervisory team to take an interest in and monitor the wellbeing of their registrar. The transition to general practice, if occurring, can be stressful and for many doctors it is the first time they've had significant responsibility for patient care.

• Check that your registrar is being treated equitably in the apportioning of in-hours and out-of-hours work. You may need to advocate for your registrar to ensure they have sufficient teaching time and clinical exposure to meet their educational needs.
• Prevent burnout by encouraging your registrar to maintain healthy work-life balance and habits.

Contact the RACGP FSP team if you have concerns about the wellbeing of your registrar. For helpful information and a list of resources for registrars, refer to the Registrar safety and support section in the FSP Registrar Handbook. 

Supporting a registrar who isn't progressing as expected

A supervisor has an important role in identifying a registrar who isn't progressing as expected by notifying the RACGP. If you are concerned please contact the registrar's medical educator and/or the Training programs team on FSPadmin@racgp.org.au so that we can support both the registrar and you. Our medical educators can then devise targeted educational support for the registrar and monitor their progress.

We understand that undertaking the role as supervisor is an additional load for doctors working in an already complex general practice environment.

There is a range of support available for supervisors: 

• Medical Educators (MEs)
• MEs provide pastoral care and educational support to supervisors
• Supervisor Program officers provide program and administrative support to supervisors, registrars and their training sites
• Peer support - Your peers can be a valuable source of support because they will be going through similar experiences and challenges. Having a support network is an important part of your self-care.
• Other support - For a full list of other support resources please visit the Support for supervisors page of the FSP Training Site and Supervisor Handbook.

In-practice supervision includes:

• For the first two weeks of the program, 1 hour per day with the FSP registrar as part of the Early Assessment of Safety and Learning (EASL), 10 hours total.
• During GPT1 and GPT2 of the FSP, conduct weekly or fortnightly meetings (30 minutes or 60 minutes respectively).
• During GPT3 and GPT4 of the FSP, provide educational supervision to the FSP registrar for 1 hour per month.

Payments will be made by the RACGP for:

• Supervision of each FSP registrar at $150 plus GST & super per hour, and
• Submission of six-monthly Supervisor Report on the FSP registrar’s performance at $150 plus GST & super per report.

Supervisors need to complete the Global Competency rating for every assessment entered into the FSP Portal or the assessment is not finalised and won’t incur a payment. 
 

Supervisor remuneration

Scheduled assessments and reports

• Supervisor Q&A Sessions are hosted by FSP Supervisor Liaison Dr Rod Omond. They offer an opportunity to ask any questions you may have regarding supervision or the FSP. Attendance is not compulsory. Sessions are spread across different days of the week to enable attendance, look out for an email invite to the next session.
  • Next scheduled session: Thursday 19 October 5.30 pm AEDT
• ​If you are not currently accredited as a registrar supervisor with AGPT, FSP has its own process of accreditation for primary supervisors.
• As a primary supervisor, you need to complete:
  • gplearning modules for new supervisors
  • cultural awareness and cultural safety training module
  • and
  • have a discussion with a Medical Educator (ME)
  • keep on track with workplace-based assessments and other in-practice teaching for your registrar.

• Going on leave?

• If you're going on leave for more than 2 weeks, please complete a Change in circumstance form via the FSP portal to notify us of your leave and what supervision arrangements are in place for their registrar whilst you're away.

• Adverse events & Critical incidents

• Reporting an adverse event or critical incident is a requirement for all accredited training sites and requires an Adverse event and critical incident report form. Please refer to the critical incident and adverse event management guidance document for guidance on how to identify and report such incidents.
•  

Research project seeking participants

The University of Melbourne, in conjunction with the RACGP, are looking to recruit a small number of IMGs from the Fellowship Support Program (and their supervisors) to participate in a research project. The commitment is two interviews, for which you will be given a ‘prepaid card’ to the value of $300.00.

We particularly welcome, although not exclusively, IMGs whose primary medical degree was taught in a language that was not English.

We are looking to improve what we know about the teaching and learning of IMGs undertaking general practice training, so that supervisors can be supported to enhance their educator practices and IMGs can optimise their training experiences.

Should you wish to discuss opting-in, or wish a more detailed discussion about the project, you can either contact Dr Tim Clement or Dr Jenny Huang by text or email or click on this link to leave your contact details, answer a few background questions, and provide a convenient time to be contacted. 

This research project is supported by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners with funding from the Australian Government under the Australian General Practice Training Program. 

• FSP Training Site & Supervisor Handbook
• FSP Accreditation Standards for Training Sites & Supervisors
• FSP Accreditation Handbook for Training Sites & Supervisors
• FSP EASL Clinical Supervision Plan
• Assessor Handbook- Workplace-based assessments
• GPT2 Calendar (January starters) 
• GPT1 Calendar (July starters)
• Adverse event and critical incident report form
• Critical incident and adverse event management guidance document

We're here to help

Please reach out to us via fspadmin@racgp.org.au should you have any questions or concerns.