“The unique privilege of every clinician is to acknowledge their patients as people who embody their own story within their families and community.” Johanna Lynch

When reflecting on our purpose at GPTQ, I always consider the change I see in Registrars between the orientation workshop held every year at the commencement of GP terms and the exit workshop in their last six weeks of training. While there have been gains in knowledge and skills over their time with us, this progression is natural for every medical practitioner as they develop. The big shift I find so exciting is the shift in attitude – a change in their relationship with patients and the role they see themselves having as General Practitioners. Patients are no longer presentations to “fix”, they are people with families and communities and stories. As Registrars share their own stories of training with each other, I also see the emergence of communities of practice – the special foundation that will allow peer-based reflective learning to continue over the life of their career.

How does our training support the change Registrars undergo? There are both subtle and overt ways. Our team of experienced educators lead by example, sharing the ways they care for their own communities. Their educational skills and training allows them to encourage and enable attitudinal changes within small groups and facilitate local communities of practice. Our educators and team provide support to our practices and Supervisors that facilitates skills development. The localisation of our districts means that each team knows local Supervisors and their practice at a clinical and an administrative level. The systems developed by GPTQ allow us to individualise support for Registrars when it is needed.

I stepped into the role of Associate Director of Medical Education – Core Programs in January 2019. One of the tasks I undertook within this role was overseeing our Australian Defence Force (ADF) Registrars. Since then I have been impressed with the agility this group of Registrars demonstrates and their capacity to shift their varied skills to where they are needed. In recent months the capability to be agile has been demonstrated not only by our ADF Registrars, but by our profession of General Practice, our colleges, our Supervisors, our Registrars and our organisation. The team of Medical Educators have risen to the challenge of delivering education and pastoral care in an uncertain environment. Their innovation to deliver education in new and engaging ways – via zoom webinars, with interactive asynchronous solutions and extending the scope of direct observation visits – has been exciting to be a part of. We have added to our abilities as educators, trying new approaches and learning as we go. We have collaborated with other RTOs for Supervisor and Registrar education, developed new formats of peer support, of pastoral care and social connections.

As we move toward college led training in 2022, I am excited to see GPTQ demonstrate the skills we have learned and continue to innovate while producing the General Practitioners of the future.

Dr Rebecca Lock