Influence on general practitioners of teaching undergraduates: qualitative study of London general practitioner teachers

Abstract

Objective To examine the perceived effect of teaching clinical skills and associated teacher training programmes on general practitioners' morale and clinical practice. Design Qualitative semistructured interview study. Setting General practices throughout north London. Subjects 30 general practitioners who taught clinical skills were asked about the effect of teaching and teacher training on their morale, confidence in clinical and teaching skills, and clinical practice. Results The main theme was a positive effect on morale. Within teacher training this was attributed to developing peer and professional support; improved teaching skills; and revision of clinical knowledge and skills. Within teaching this was attributed to a broadening of horizons; contact with enthusiastic students; increased time with patients; improved clinical practice; improved teaching skills; and an improved image of the practice. Problems with teaching were due to external factors such as lack of time and space and anxieties about adequacy of clinical cover while teaching. Conclusions Teaching clinical skills can have a positive effect on the morale of general practitioner teachers as a result of contact with students and peers, as long as logistic and funding issues are adequately dealt with.

Motives and Experiences of the Competent Supervisor in General Practice – A Qualitative Study~!2010-03-22~!2010-05-19~!2010-08-16~!

“…The GPs seem to learn from their own teaching and challenging questions from students are stimulating. A positive influence on the health centre is also reported; morale is greater and the image of the practice improves [2,8].…”

“…Many symptom presentations in primary care are still undifferentiated and psychosocial issues occur [6,7]. Most GP teachers/supervisors enjoy their duties [1,8,9]. The skills are taught within a personalized supervision, and the students are exposed to a variety of complaints and diseases [9].…”

Context counts: training health workers in and for rural and remote areas

“…Training rural health workers in the rural setting is likely to result in greatly improved recruitment and retention of skilled health-care providers in rural underserved areas with consequent improvement in access to health care for the local communities. 6,20,21 In response to the shortage of rural doctors, various medical schools across the world have developed innovative approaches to producing doctors with the knowledge, skills and commitment to practice in underserved, rural and remote regions. [22][23][24][25] In general, evaluation of rural clinical placements has demonstrated that the rural setting provides a high-quality clinical learning environment that is of potential value to all medical students.…”

Évaluation de l’impact immédiat d’un dispositif pédagogique de formation « hybride » sur les connaissances des étudiants de second cycle en matière de prévention en soins primaires

“…Il est possible qu'il participe à la valorisation de l'image de la médecine générale auprès des étudiants du deuxième cycle des études médicales [20,21] et au sein de l'université. Mais l'essentiel réside probablement ailleurs, dans la capacité des enseignants à susciter l'intérêt des étudiants, et l'interactivité au cours des séances.…”