Education and Learning in the GPR Year
1) The Day Release Course (DRC)
This has two terms a year.
Each term is of roughly 15 days and terms start September (running through to the end of January) and March (running through to July).
Each term starts with a 2 day residential module, usually at Urchfont Manor in Wiltshire, followed by most Wednesdays thereafter for 14 weeks.
Roughly half the Wednesday course sessions are held at the RUH in Bath and half at GWH in Swindon.
Parking is particularly atrocious at both the RUH and GWH. Take advice from Registrars who have been before!
The Day Release Course is designed to complement teaching in the practices and has the advantage of having a group of peers to learn with and from.
The course uses the principles of adult education using material which is relevant, interesting and fulfils the needs of the learners.
GPRs have a a say in deciding the course content, a lot of which is based around small group work - usually of a problem solving orientation - and communication skills, together with clinical topics tackled in a "workshop" format, using both GPs and specialists as resources.
The DRC days run from 09.00 - 16.15 hours.
Feedback on each session is requested, evaluated and used to indicate further learning requirements - so that you can put a report in your "personal learning portfolio" for each DRC session.
All registrars take turns in tasks such as a short clinical presentation, collating feedback, organising registrar choice sessions etc.
We appraise registrars on the DRC during the year. This is essentially formative in nature, and will should help you to evaluate your progress on the course.
On a slightly niggly note, there is an absolute requirement for you to attend at least 70% of the sessions on the course. We hope that you will be able to come to more than this!
If you are planning holidays or going on other courses please bear this in mind, or your trainer will find him/herself unable to sign you up at the end of the year.
If you know that you will be unable to attend, you need to phone (01225 824894) or e-mail ( ) your apologies to Lucy.
2) Hospice attachments
Prospect House, the hospice in Swindon, has informally provided attachments to registrars from that of the patch in the past. If this interests you talk to one of the Swindon Course Organisers early on in the course.
Dorothy House near Bath offers to take all Bath district GPRs on a four-day secondment during the registrar year, usually in the second six months. A rota is published at approx 6 monthly intervals. If the week allocated to you is inconvenient, try to arrange a swap with a colleague - as the secondment (which has the support of all Bath trainers) is too good an opportunity to miss. See the Dorothy House page for further details.
3) Audits & Projects
Registrars have to carry out simple audits in the practices during their year as part of Summative Assessment. See our Audit Study Guide pages on medical audit.
Each year various bodies offer small but worthwhile prizes for audits and it costs nothing to enter.
Projects are voluntary but encouraged and may take the form of some simple research or operation analysis.
4) Practice Exchanges
Visiting another practice gives the opportunity to experience different working environments which may be surprisingly different, even within the same area.
Going further afield to an inner-city practice, for instance, may be enlightening.
Such exchanges are encouraged and usually arranged via your trainer.
5) The Library
Whilst your practice library will undoubtedly be flowing over with good things it is unlikely that it will have the wide range of facilities available in the DGH libraries. These are a very valuable educational resource.
There are now a number of very useful websites for GP registrars on the net – we will try and get an up to date list together for the beginning of term.
6) Extensions
Registrars in Wessex can apply for 3 or 6 month extensions to the training year.
They are entirely voluntary, but allow exploration of areas relating to general practice in more depth than is usually possible in a 12 months appointment.
At the time of writing, however, the funding for these excellent posts seems to have dried up, hopefully temporarily.
If these interest you it may be worth a discussion with Robin While at your 3 month appraisal with him.
Next page: The MRCGP Exam
Last update: 01 October 2006