Sustainable teaching in community based general practice

One of Adelaide to Outback’s (AOGP) key projects for 2007/2008 is an investigation into the sustainability of teaching in community-based general practice. This project has arisen from concerns from a number of key stakeholders, particularly our GP supervisors, regarding the increasing amount of teaching that is being placed in community-based general practice without commensurate support. Currently, many of AOGP’s practices are involved in teaching at the undergraduate, intern and postgraduate level and this is likely to increase over the next 5 years.

Teaching in community-based general practice is known to provide benefits including stimulus and variety for GP Supervisors, as well as a high quality training environment. However, it requires commitment and time from GPs to teach, but also involves other practice staff, room to provide teaching and there is also a financial component which may or may not be adequately covered by the universities, hospitals or Regional Training Providers. However, what has been missing from the debate is accurate data on the resources and time required for teaching which could assist planning in the future.

To address, AOGP commenced in May 2007 a study, known as the Sustainable Teaching in Community based General Practice Study. We formed a Steering Group to guide this project from key stakeholders such as GP Supervisors, Universities, Department of Health and RDWA.

To ensure that we cover teaching at all levels of the training continuum, not only are AOGP Supervisors involved but also GPs providing teaching to medical students from the University of Adelaide.

We are collecting data from a number of sources including GPs and Practice Managers to ensure that all activities related to teaching are identified and costed.

For GPs, we disseminated a survey in July to collect information on the:

• current teaching load;
  
• financial cost of teaching from both a Supervisor and practice perspective and at all levels of medical education;
  
• requirements needed to increase the teaching workload; and
  
• capacity to expand teaching.
  

The information gained from this survey will provide insight into the direct and indirect costs of teaching and what will be required to continue or expand your capacity to teach in the future.

If you require any information on this project, please contact Dr Caroline Laurence, Special Projects Manager via caroline.laurence@adelaide.edu.au.