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Three-hour mandatory vaccination training fails to consider GP expertise
The RACGP is strongly advocating for any education and training to address GPs’ needs and avoid taking up critical time.
The RACGP is advocating that the training be targeted to GPs’ needs and take no more than two hours.
Australia’s vaccine roadmap looks to be on track, with two COVID vaccines approved for use and more than 5000 general practices having put their hand up to take part in the rollout.
But concerns have been raised over the proposed mandatory training for administrators of the Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccine, with RACGP members claiming the modules fail to address their specific needs and include redundant information GPs are already familiar with.
Dr Lara Roeske is a member of the RACGP’s COVID Working Group and a longstanding representative of the RACGP’s CPD program.
She told newsGP that education and training is ‘absolutely critical’ to the vaccination program’s success, but that the modules have been designed with a blanket approach indicative of ‘inadequate consultation’ with experts in GP education.
‘We recognise that GPs aren’t the only professionals who will be vaccinating. But in terms of GP needs, what needs to be considered is that there is already a huge repository of expertise,’ Dr Roeske said.
‘We are the nation’s vaccinators – GPs deliver the most vaccinations in this country. With that comes already a level of expertise around handling, monitoring, reporting, cold-chain and infection control.
‘So when education modules for training are being developed, they really should be mindful of that. We don’t want them to be unnecessarily onerous or irrelevant.’
The accredited training modules, offered by the Federal Government, have been developed by the Australian College of Nursing (ACN) and currently take approximately three hours to complete.
However, Dr Roeske says the modules undertaken by GPs ‘must be specific’ to their learning needs, scope of practice and contextual setting.
‘What I mean by that is the role that GPs will play in practices around COVID-19 vaccination is very different to that of a receptionist, a practice nurse, a practice manager,’ she said.
‘GPs have unique and particular responsibilities – they have a clinical oversight role.’
Based on GP member feedback, it is recommended that training modules focus on:
- use of multidose vials
- addressing vaccine hesitancy
- identifying and recruiting priority groups
- reporting requirements to the Australian Immunisation Register
- post-release monitoring of adverse events and subsequent reporting.
Following the Therapeutic Goods Administration’s approval of the Oxford University/AstraZeneca candidate on Tuesday, Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt confirmed the first doses are expected to arrive in Australia by ‘early March, if not sooner’.
In the weeks leading up to the rollout, the RACGP has called on the Department of Health (DoH) and ACN to pursue broader consultation with the college to consider the needs of GPs and their patients in various settings, as well as reduce the time commitment.
‘So not more than 1.5–2 hours. That would seem reasonable,’ Dr Roeske said.
‘Anything longer than that is an impost on delivery of healthcare to patients, taking us away from that important work.
‘We’re dealing with backlogs of patients that need to come in, and we know that the sudden lockdown in Victoria will have put off probably hundreds of patients seeking healthcare that has already been put off.’
As the leading provider of GP education, Dr Roeske says the RACGP knows all too well that training must ‘deliver value, be engaging, and be relevant’.
‘When you’re talking about education, you’re not talking about ticking a box,’ she said.
‘[For that reason] it is so important that it is developed and delivered by peers, where possible, and also that it is a “show me how”.
‘A video clip showing a consultation that revolves around consent would be much more useful than a consent list checkbox because GPs are working with real life people, real life situations, and that dynamic needs to be reflected in the education.
‘With timely and considered consultation, the training packages will actually be improved and then specifically meet GP needs, and therefore be well received and taken up – that’s what’s really important.’
The DoH has responded to the RACGP with confirmation that it will review its training requirements for GPs.
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