GP Foundation Programme Educational Supervisors in Severn

All trainees in the Foundation Programme have an identified Educational Supervisor throughout the year.

The role of the Educational Supervisor is to ensure that the trainee receives appropriate training and experience. They will also decide whether individual placements have been satisfactorily completed.

The Educational Supervisor should undertake regular formative appraisals, provide support to help the trainee develop their Foundation Learning Portfolio, and ensure that appropriate workplace assessments take place.

What is the Educational Supervisor responsible for?

S/he is are responsible for:

• undertaking regular formative appraisal;
• providing support in the development of the doctor's foundation learning portfolio;
• ensuring the foundation doctor understands and engages in assessment;
• being the first point of call for concerns about training;
• ensuring appropriate training opportunities are available for the foundation doctor to gain competencies.

Liaising with Clinical Supervisors

While the Educational Supervisor will often be the trainee's Clinical Supervisor in one of the posts, the trainee's other posts will have different Clinical Supervisors.

Clinical Supervisors, in their day-to-day contact with trainees, will be most aware of their strengths and weaknesses in particular areas of practice. Therefore, it is important that clear channels of communication exist, both to

• keep the educational supervisor informed of progress
• identify potential problems early, and
• ensure Clinical Supervisors are aware of the trainees' objectives.

It is important that Clinical Supervisors be kept abreast the educational goals agreed between trainees and Educational Supervisors.

This will allow the Clinical Supervisor to ensure trainees are practising safely and within their level of competence, and to assist them to develop their skills.

At the end of each placement, the Clinical Supervisor should supply the educational supervisor with a brief report about the trainee in advance of their end-of-placement meeting.

How often do the trainees need to meet with the Educational Supervisor?

In Severn, the trainee needs to meet with his/her Educational Supervisor four times during the F2 year:

• within a week of taking up their first F2 post (to review the Foundation Learning Portfolio and agree educational objectives for the placements);
• at the end of each placement (which will also be the beginning of the next one). These three further meetings should be for appraisal discussions - to review the portfolio and the results of any assessments. The supervisor should provide the trainee with feedback on his/her progress.

The outcomes of these meetings should be recorded in the Foundation Learning Portfolio.

How does it work?

Typically, an educational supervision meeting lasts one hour. So, a GP Educational Supervisor with three F2s to supervise may plan a three-hour session (three trainees for an hour each), four times a year.

Who is responsible for making sure it all happens?

The system is designed to be trainee-driven and it is the responsibility of each trainee to arrange meetings with their Educational Supervisor, to keep their Foundation Learning Portfolio up to date and to ensure that the appropriate number of assessments are carried out throughout each placement.

Payment

This hasn't been finalised for 2008/9, but we've bid for £140 to cover backfill for each three-hour session.

 

Back to: Severn GP Foundation Programme Home Page

 

Written by: Michael Harris

Last update: 05 April 2009