News from the North - Caledonian & Rural Track GPDR

GP Day Release (or GPDR) is the core of our educational programme in Caledonian/Rural track. We have seven groups operating; five largely based in Inverness, one in Fort William/Oban, and one for more remote GPSTs.

Sessions take place over a whole day, once per month, and over a two year cycle cover the whole of the RCGP curriculum.

The aim of GPDR to develop individual knowledge, skills and attitudes in a group setting, with an emphasis on communication, personal effectiveness, planning learning/education/facilitation, reflective practice and e-learning. There is encouragement of group synergy and ambition as learners that “anything is possible."

Each group has its own identity, influenced by the facilitator and the ST’s themselves. Working in small groups is the most important aspect of the educational programme because it encourages: mutual support, mutual challenge, learning from each other, understanding diversity, learning about teamwork, learning tolerance and mutual respect, sharing responsibility, and the opportunity to raise problems whilst in hospital and practice posts.

These are skills for lifelong learning, and for life in general practice; they are also skills assessed by some of the components of MRCGP. The groups create a safe space in which difficult or uncomfortable issues can be discussed in confidence. 

Content of the sessions is learner-needs driven. Novel use of Practice-Based Small Group Learning (PBSGL) modules provides a key component of peer led resource. All GPSTs receive training in small group facilitation skills via the PBSGL framework.

In Facilitator led sessions you will have opportunity to explore recent journal articles/critical appraisal/relevant guidelines/CSA practice (part of the MRCGP assessment)/challenging cases. Discussion of these help group members develop skills in dealing with uncertainty, complexity, handling problems, supporting colleagues, giving feedback and developing emotional intelligence. 

GPSTs gave really positive feedback on their GPDR experience this last year, and we have an evidenced track record of responding to ST feedback to help ensure we continue to strive for excellence and make GPDR experience as awesome as possible!

Dr Rod Sampson, Associate Advisor, Inverness