In-practice teaching
The prime teaching activity is discussion of the registrar’s cases. Case discussion allows you to deepen and extend your registrar’s learning from their clinical encounters. Registrars are encouraged to bring cases to discuss with you where they have unresolved questions. You may also select registrar cases for review (random case analysis) to ensure situations where your registrar may not have been aware that they needed help are being uncovered. Finally, you may share cases of your own, particularly where they involve an area of practice your registrar is not encountering in their daily case load.
Other teaching activities include direct observation of consultations, joint consultations, formal teaching on specific topics, demonstration of and participation in clinical procedures, cultural education, audits of test ordering and referrals. Workplace-based assessments are also completed during in-practice teaching time.
In-practice teaching also provides an opportunity for you to provide mentoring, support and feedback on performance.
Teaching time requirements
Teaching time includes both formal and informal teaching activities and the workplace-based assessments, and the amount of time required depends on your registrar’s stage of training:
- GPT1 – minimum 3 hours (FTE) per week of which one hour must be scheduled and uninterrupted formal in-practice teaching.
- GPT2 – minimum 1.5 hours (FTE) per week of which one hour per fortnight must be scheduled and uninterrupted formal in-practice teaching.
- GPT3 – minimum 30 minutes per week of scheduled and uninterrupted formal in-practice teaching.
For registrars training part-time, the scheduled and uninterrupted formal in-practice teaching in GPT1 is one hour, regardless of the total teaching time. However, in GPT2 and GPT3, in-practice teaching time is pro rata (proportional to their training hours).
TIP
Practice managers have the important task of ensuring time is set aside for teaching. Teaching sessions should ideally be scheduled in the first hour of a consulting session or before consulting starts in the morning. Scheduling teaching sessions at lunchtime or at the end of the day should be avoided as these times are prone to interruptions or participants running late.