Information for Patients – Training Practice
What is a Training Practice?
Training Practices are involved in medical education. They may be involved in the supervision of trainees from different professions (e.g. doctors, nurses, pharmacists) and may support these trainees at different stages in their training.
What makes a training practice special?
Training practices must commit to high standards of clinical care. They are inspected regularly not only by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) who inspect every practice but also by Health Education England (HEE) who ensure that training practices and their approved trainers are providing an appropriate teaching environment.
Training practices benefit from training because they have continuous exposure to bright, enthusiastic and motivated trainees who bring with them fresh perspectives and ideas. They also have a strong ethos of learning and development ensuring up-to-date clinical practice and an emphasis on team-working.
Our patients report high levels of satisfaction in consultation with our trainees and will often ask to see them specifically.
What types of trainee are at Chalgrove and Watlington and how might I meet them?
Chalgrove & Watlington train groups of medical students from Oxford University Medical School. They are taught in small groups and their teaching is based around patients who might have interesting diagnoses and/or clinical signs.
The main type of trainee you are likely to meet in our surgery are our GP Registrars. These are fully qualified doctors who have had at least two years of post-qualification experience prior to joining us, often much more. They have chosen to specialise in general practice and will spend between 6 and 12 months working in our practice while they undertake their professional exams.
Registrars can see patients and prescribe for them independently; you will usually notice no difference when consulting with them than you would with one of our fully qualified GPs. They may have slightly longer consultations to begin with and they may have another GP sitting in with them when they are being assessed.
You may be asked to have your consultation with our registrar recorded for their communication skills examination. Your permission will be sought before the recording takes place and you are under no obligation to say yes. Recordings will be kept securely and seen/listened to only by the trainer(s) involved in supporting that registrar and the examiner(s) assessing the consultation. The recordings are destroyed after use.
During their placement with us it is important that our registrars get feedback from patients so you may be asked to complete a questionnaire after your consultation – this feedback is anonymous.
How do I know that the trainee I see is being adequately supervised?
All of our GP registrars will have an approved trainer within the practice who oversees their education whilst they are with us.
They monitor their progress during their placement and ensure trainees are working safely. Every trainee has a named supervising doctor for each clinical session in the practice and covering them on home visits. They spend time debriefing the trainee at the end of each session but may also be called upon to give a second opinion whilst you are in the room if there is any diagnostic uncertainty.
Can I refuse to see a trainee?
Our GP trainees are part of our team and are fully qualified doctors. You will not routinely be informed that you are seeing a registrar when you book your appointment.
Surgery GP Trainee
Dr Tidy will be joining us as a GP Trainee from January 2022 to June 2022.
