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Frequently Asked Questions

GPSA has put together a series of Frequently Asked Questions on topics that are featured in our webinars and podcasts. The questions come from the GPSA community and the answers come from peer-reviewed research, best-practice guides, GP supervisors, medical educators, topic specialists, practice managers and sector stakeholders. Corresponding webinars and podcasts can be accessed here:

Questions on developing your skills as a supervisor

Supervision

Link	Title	Summary
	Identifying and Supporting GP Supervisors in Difficulty	Identifying and Supporting GP Supervisors in difficulty in a variety of situations and providing appropriate responses
	Improve safety with a ‘Call for help’ list	How to utilise the ‘Call for Help’ list to provide clear instructions for registrars on when to call for help, alongside being used as a tool to monitor a registrar’s safety and progress throughout a placement.
	Introduction to GP supervision – Roles, responsibilities and rewards	This FAQ will provide straight-forward answers to simple questions about becoming a GP supervisor such as: Where do I start? What do I need to know? What do I need to do?
	Managing the Stress and Mental Health of GP Registrars	This FAQ will provide you with an understanding of the different strategies you can employ as a GP Supervisor with your GP Registrar to weather a career in general practice safely and sustainably.
	Medico-legal Risks – After-Hours and On-Call	This FAQ explores and address the issues identified for both doctors working in after-hours environments and their GP Supervisors.
	Supervising IMGs	This FAQ aims to assist GP supervisors to better support IMG GP registrars training in their practices. It is based on the newly published GPSA guide.
	Supervision of registrars undertaking teleconsultations	An overview of teleconsultation supervision approaches, specific actions and initiatives, and how to use technology for three way consults

Teaching and learning

Link	Title	Summary
	Ad hoc supervision and informal teaching	This FAQ will provide supervisors with skills in identifying teaching opportunities and in turning ad hoc (corridor) encounters into valuable teaching and learning experiences.
	Clinical supervision and the use of random case analysis	Explaining various clinical supervision options available to a supervisor as well as a framework for random case analysis.
	Enhancing your in-practice teaching	This FAQ covers concepts such as ‘what to teach’ and ‘how to teach it’.
	Formal teaching	This FAQ explains the ‘how to’ aspect of practice-based teaching, focussing on the range of teaching methods and highlighting a new framework for problem case discussion
	Managing Underperforming GP Registrars	Looking at common causes for registrar difficulties and early warning signs, as well as how supervisors can support them.
	Planning learning	This FAQ will help registrars plan their learning, covering possible learning needs, both known and unknown, and the tools that supervisors can use to help identify them.
	Random case analysis	Defining random case analysis and the process involved in sampling of medical records with the registrar to assess their clinical knowledge, decision making and the quality of medical records,
	Teaching Business Assessment of General Practice	Looking at the need to explain business decisions and the business master plan to registrars, as well as providing tools for a self-assessment of your business practice.
	Teaching Clinical Reasoning	Aimed at helping GP supervisors teach their registrars “to think like a GP”.
	Teaching Professionalism	Aims to support supervisors to identify, assess, and facilitate development of skills in professional and ethical practice in their registrars.
	Teaching that connects	Looking at different approaches to teaching that connect with registrars such as flipped and disruptive teaching.

Assessment and feedback

Link	Title	Summary
	Assessing the reflective practitioner	This FAQ is designed to help your registrar understand and develop their reflective practice needs as a consistent part of your teaching routine.
	Consultation analysis and feedback	This FAQ discusses some of the consultation model structures, how to analyse consultations and, in turn, how to provide developmental feedback to GP registrars around their consultations.
	Feedback	This FAQ discusses feedback in a variety of situations that require effective feedback to be delivered, strategies available to deal with almost any learner and situation and how to understand which feedback strategy will suit which situation best.
	Assessing and Managing Registrars with Performance Issues to Work Well	Looking at early warning signs for registrar performance issues and describes the parallels between clinical approaches and educational approaches used to diagnose and manage performance issues
	Observing your registrar: Refine your skills	Details different ways of observation, the consultation observation tool, the most common consulting errors, and feedback on a consultation.
	Supporting RACGP Registrars through AKT and KFP assessments	This resource aims to help supervisors of all levels of experience understand the exam process and confidently support their registrar prepare for written assessments.
	Telehealth Consultations – Assessment	Learn how to assess registrars performing telehealth consultations, discuss the role and methods of in-practice formative assessment, and adapt other formative assessment methods to the telehealth consultation.

Questions on teaching your registrar about...

Clinical topics

Link	Title	Summary
	Advance Care planning	Describes the process of planning for future health and personal care when the person cannot make or communicate their decisions.
	Behavioural Issues in children	This FAQ discusses behavioural problems and common developmental behavioural problems in children from toddlers to primary schoolers including diagnosis, management and when to refer.
	Childhood trauma	Gives an overview on what to teach your registrar about identifying and treating patients with a history of childhood trauma.
	Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)	Discusses common learning/teaching challenges with respect to COPD medicines and inhalers, how to navigate them, and what key resources are available to help teach your registrar.
	Coeliac disease	FAQ on management of coeliac disease, and teaching your registrar this.
	Common infections – 1	This FAQ gives supervisors and registrars registrars a further understanding of management of additional common infection presentations with clinical guidelines.
	Common infections – 2	This FAQ gives supervisors and registrars registrars a further understanding of management of additional common infection presentations with clinical guidelines.
	Contraception	This FAQ gives a practical update on recent developments in the field, highlighting the most up to date resources available.
	COVID-19	Looking at COVID-19 diagnosis, infection management and tele-health
	Dementia diagnosis	Will assist GP Supervisors in teaching your GP registrar how to identify dementia with great certainty as well as how to deliver a diagnosis of dementia.
	Dementia management	Dementia is increasing in our ageing population. It is important that we can prepare ourselves and our registrars to better understand, diagnose and manage dementia.
	Dementia – Managing Stage 3 (Advanced) Dementia	Strategies for teaching your registrar to manage Stage 3 (Advanced) Dementia.
	Dermatological problems	This FAQ answers common questions relating to assessing and managing dermatological presentations.
	Domestic Violence in a Pandemic – a Primary Care Response	Understand how to support registrars in managing domestic violence – how to ask patients about domestic violence, respond to a disclosure, safely plan and refer, and manage with the whole family.
	Endometriosis	Describing the current diagnostic criteria and presentation patterns of endometriosis
	Fatigue	Fatigue is a particularly challenging presentation for registrars, as it is ambiguous and potentially associated with serious disease.
	HIV AIDS	This FAQ provides answers to questions to ensure your registrar is providing the best level of care with respect to HIV AIDS, including its testing, treatment, and prevention.
	Managing the Patient with ADHD – helping your registrar deliver best practice care	Answering commonly asked questions relating to ADHD, such as the differences shown in ADHD with adults, as well as common traits of ADHD.
	Mental health	Looks at how to teach registrars about managing mental health conditions, including creating simple and useful mental health plans, useful tools to use for common presentations, and how to make it work financially.
	Obese and overweight patients	Discusses the strategies for successfully managing obesity in general practice, and how you can support your registrar to develop confidence in this area.
	Prenatal screening	This FAQ answers questions on what’s new in preconception and antenatal care, with a focus on genetics and reproductive carrier screening.
	Psychedelic-assisted Therapy For Mental Illnesses	Looking at clinical trials for use of psychedelics in treating mental illness.
	STI management	Answering questions about what to teach registrars in relation to STI Management, including taking a sexual history, STI screening, as well as treatment and management of common STIs.
	Voluntary Assisted Dying in Victoria	This resource provides guidance for Victorian GP supervisors and their registrars on how to navigate the new territory of voluntary assisted dying.
	Young people and depression	GP registrars are likely to have had very limited experience in assessing and managing depression and anxiety disorders in young people during their hospital training, and the GP supervisor can play a key role in increasing their skills.

Consultation skills

Link	Title	Summary
	Chronic disease management – Time based health assessment	Understand how to teach your registrar about time-based health assessments and chronic disease management including the medicare requirements for a health assessment, eligibility of patients, step-by-tep requirements to complete one with your registrar.
	Chronic disease management – MBS items	What is chronic disease management? – Medicare and documentation.
	How to complete a care plan	What is a care plan? – Medicare and documentation.
	Clinical reasoning	The Clinical reasoning game offers a way of randomly generating presentations and practicing clinical reasoning by considering the symptoms, signs or results using different reasoning methods to generate broad lists of differential diagnoses.
	Conducting Consultations	Exploring what makes a consultation successful and presents a framework underlying an effective and efficient consultation that can be taught to your registrars.
	Consultation analysis and feedback	Providing a structured checklist for consultations as well as an overview of consultations models, assessment of consultation skills and providing feedback.
	Identifying and Managing Medico-legal Risks	Identifies the medicolegal risks experienced by GP supervisors in private practice and how to navigate them better than the case files explored with participants.
	Observing your registrar: Refine your skills	Detailing different ways of observation, the consultation observation tool, the most common consulting errors, and feedback on a consultation.
	Managing uncertainty	Answering commonly asked questions about dealing with uncertainty, which is now considered a learned skill and a core competency of general practice.
	Mandatory reporting	Explore a range of real medico-legal cases where the mandatory reporting path was unclear and help define what circumstances warrant reporting
	Medicare Billing	Offering registrars support in correctly navigating the complex Medicare system.
	Patient boundaries	Focuses on helping registrars identify and manage inappropriate patient behaviour and requests and looks at the risks of dual relationships and why registrars are particularly vulnerable.
	Professional and Ethical practice	Exploring approaches to teaching professional and ethical practice, relating to five domains of general practice, and also looking at how professionalism is defined and assessed.
	Telehealth Consultations – How to conduct them	Learn about the different types of telehealth, medicare changes, ePrescribing, the telehealth process, suggested steps and how to conduct an effective and efficient consultation.

Specific population groups

Link	Title	Summary
	Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health	How to use the GPSA Guide to teaching and learning on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health.
	Telehealth and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Paitents	This FAQ provides tips to giving better care when undertaking telehealth consultations with persons who may identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander.
	Behavioural Issues in children	Answering questions on behavioural problems and common developmental behavioural problems in children from toddlers to primary schoolers including diagnosis, management and when to refer.
	Disability care	Will help you to describe the complex needs of the disabled community, understand how to support your registrar to take a specific and comprehensive history and perform an appropriate examination, and how to generally support the registrar to provide high quality healthcare to the disabled community in general practice and group home setting.
	LGBTQIA+ inclusive healthcare	Support GP supervisors in their teaching and supervision of registrars who are providing medical services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and non-binary, queer, intersex, asexual and other (LGBTQIA+) patients.
	Nursing home residents	Answers questions about common conditions for residential aged care facility residents and management of these conditions.
	Veteran’s health	This FAQ answers questions on the many things you can teach your registrar about caring for veterans.
	Young people and depression	GP registrars are likely to have had very limited experience in assessing and managing depression and anxiety disorders in young people during their hospital training, and the GP supervisor can play a key role in increasing their skills.

Exam preparation and support

Link	Title	Summary
	CCE examinations	Providing answers to commonly asked questions about the CCE, or Clinical Competency Exam, which is the final exam for doctors seeking fellowship with the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP).
	Preparing GP Registrars For The KFP	Aims to demystify the KFP so supervisors can support their registrar in preparing for the exam, and transfer that learning into their clinical practice career.
	StAMPS assessment preparation	Guiding registrars through the StAMPS assessment process, and how to prepare your registrar for their exam.
	Supporting GP Registrars Who Have Failed an Exam	This resource aims to help you support your registrar to prepare effectively for their next exam attempt.
	Supporting GP registrars with the AKT and KFP	This resource aims to help supervisors of all levels of experience understand the exam process and confidently support their registrar prepare for written assessments.

Questions about training practice support

Practice support

Link	Title	Summary
	ACRRM’s Flexible Funding Model Explained	Answering quesions relating to ACRRM’s Flexible Funding Model.
	Before the registrar starts	Answers questions on what to do before a registrar starts in your training practice, from actions to be completed 2-3 months before the registrar starts.
	Life Hacks and Self Care	Learn how to apply science-backed self-management tools, monitor your wellbeing, and practical ways to contribute to a happier and healthier workplace.
	Medicare Compliance	This resource aims to help you teach your registrar the importance of billing correctly and what to expect, and do, if you receive an MBS audit, or any review request from Medicare.
	Medicare Provider Number	Going through the Medicare provider number (MPN) application process with GP registrar placements under the Australian General Practice Training (AGPT) Program.
	Medicare Provider Numbers Post Fellowship	Answering questions on the Medicare Provider number post fellowship
	National Consistent Payments and Flexible Funding for GP Training	An update from the Department of Health and Age Care about National Consistent Payments (NCP) and flexible funding for GP Training.
	Navigating Services Australia for Practice/Supervisor Payments	Provides advice on how to navigate Services Australia for practice/supervisor payments.
	NTCER	Practical answers to the NTCER terms and conditions.
	Preparing the Practice Manager for GP Training from 1 February 2023	Information for practice managers about the processes for 2023.
	Registrar Clinical Encounters in Training (ReCEnT) project	The Registrar Clinical Encounters in Training (ReCEnT) research project has been running running since 2009 conducted by GP Synergy in NSAW and the ACT. The research offers key insights into the experience of practicing registrars.
	Registrar Leave	Answering common questions about registrar leave entitlements
	Shared debt risk	This resource aims to help medical practices understand their responsibility in teaching registrars about Medicare billing and the consequences via the Shared Debt Recovery Scheme (SDRS) rules of your registrar getting it wrong.
	Training Support Payments for Supervisors and Practices	This resource looks at the process for training support payments for 2023

Frequently Asked Questions

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Questions on developing your skills as a supervisor

Questions on teaching your registrar about...

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