Engage in professional development
A GP supervisor is a dual professional – both clinician and educator – and requires professional development for both roles. Professional development for the supervisory role is called supervisor professional development to distinguish it from CPD for the clinical role.
There is a symbiotic relationship between the two types of professional development. Being a supervisor is recognised as a CPD activity. SPD is accepted as contributing towards CPD requirements.
All supervisors receive CPD hours in recognition for their work as a supervisor. For further information please refer to CPD for General Practice Supervisors
More detail about SPD is provided in Supervisor professional development (AGPT) requirements and payments.
Supervisor professional development for existing supervisors
The RACGP offers and supports a range of supervisor professional development activities. These include online learning modules, webinars and workshops. These are predominantly delivered by our regional teams of medical educators with skills in supervisor professional development.
It is expected that all general practice training posts with a GPT1–3 or extended skills in general practice registrar will undertake professional development.
The total number of SPD hours estimated to be completed by supervisors in the training site varies with the number of registrars in the training site and is capped at 4 registrars. How each of the individual accredited supervisors within the training site contribute to the total number of hours each year is at the discretion of the training site but should reflect the learning needs of the supervisors.
Over the three-year accreditation cycle it is expected all supervisors in the training site will undertake some supervisor professional development.
Table 3. Stipend provided by RACGP to training sites to cover estimated Supervisor Professional Development (SPD) hours undertaken by supervisors
|
Number of GPT1–3 or extended skills in general practice AGPT registrars in the training site
|
Estimated 6 monthly supervisor professional development hours.
(the sum of hours completed by all supervisors in the training site)
|
6 monthly training site supervisor professional development stipend payments to the training site
|
| 1 |
3 |
$500 |
| 2 |
6 |
$1000 |
| 3 |
9 |
$1500 |
| 4 or more |
12 |
$2000 |
Supervisors in MM 2–7 locations will be able to apply for reimbursement of their travel expenses for attending face to face supervisor workshops. Stipend payments to the training post cannot be made to ADF Garrison health services. Supervisors of ADF registrars in GPT3 and extended skills at these sites are paid for both supervision and professional development as part of their site employment either as a uniformed member or civilian contractor.
Supervisor professional development requirements for new supervisors
New supervisors are required to complete the Foundations of GP Supervision Program modules. These will be delivered by a combination of individual online learning completed in gplearning and group learning either in an online meeting or face-to-face workshop. The first 7 modules are completed prior to being fully accredited. Module 8 is an optional module that will allow AGPT supervisors to further develop skills learnt in modules 1–7. The program takes 8–12 hours to complete and payment for the hours spent by new AGPT supervisors completing the program are made directly to the supervisor.
Upon receipt of an application to become a new supervisor, RACGP regional teams will organise enrolment in the foundations program. As there are regional differences in how the foundations Program is delivered, supervisors should not commence any of the modules on gplearning until they have been advised their RACGP regional team to do so.
All new supervisors are required to complete cultural training, like the one offered through gplearning before being fully accredited as a supervisor.