Chair Reports -
September 2025

We are now well into the conference season, and the GPSA team will be present at many of the events where our members have previously had the opportunity to engage with us. These opportunities for the team and board members to connect with you are invaluable. This e-news includes further updates from events attended by the team, including the ACRRM Supervisor Summit and AAAPC Conference, highlighting the rich interactions and awards won, which I invite you to read about.

As we hear more about multidisciplinary teams, I reflect on the fact that most training practices, supervisors, and practice managers are already creating environments where psychological safety and a positive learning culture allow teamwork to flourish. These are key prerequisites for growth and the optimisation of shared resources—both fiscal and non-fiscal. There is a wide range of skills you are consciously or unconsciously using, improving, and perfecting in your day-to-day interactions: overseeing the work of other team members, educating them where needed, demonstrating best practice and professional standards, providing formal and informal feedback, mentoring through challenging situations, coaching towards self-efficacy, and offering pastoral care. It’s high time we shift from calling these “soft skills” to recognising them as core skills. They are core competencies, essential to effective supervision and multidisciplinary collaboration.

This reality is reflected in the webinars GPSA offers. Sessions like Culturally safe GP registrar supervision and Tips and tricks for new supervisors that have been well received and remain relevant. These webinars provide practical insights and foster the principle of peer-to-peer learning, which we continue to support.

On that note, we’ve had some fantastic webinars, including AI Scribes in General Practice Training (with Dr Owen Bradfield from MIPS), Supporting the IMG GP Registrar (with Dr Snya Chadha, GP supervisor and IMG from Queensland), and Women’s Health with a Focus on Clinical Topics (LARC, Early Medical Abortion, and the AusCAPP network), supported by Dr Danielle Mazza, Dr Nadia Lusis, and Dr Romey Giles. GPSA continues to develop dedicated resources to support IMG supervision, which can be found at GPSA – General Practice Supervision Australia | Supporting the IMG.

Lastly, I’d like to mention that GPSA webinars are approved for continuous professional development by both RACGP and ACRRM. Why they are not approved for RACGP SPD has been a question I’ve been asked often over the last two years. Please consider keeping yourself apprised of changes in this regard, particularly as there is now an updated RACGP supervisor profession development guide available. As per the document SPD may include involvement in activities delivered by organisations other than the RACGP, although some RACGP-delivered SPD must still be completed by supervisors during each three-year accreditation period. I encourage you to speak to your regional teams for further clarification, as activities accepted as SPD are determined regionally and recorded in the supervisor portfolio of the Training Management System. Supervisor training and support for ACRRM supervisors lists GPSA and the GPSA resources available as part of their supervisor guide.

While there always appear to be changes on the horizon, I encourage all supervisors to continue supporting the teams you are part of and to seek help from them when needed. Your generosity and contributions remain an integral part of the GP training structure.

Concluding with a quote from John C. Maxwell, which was used in a beautiful movie that captures the sentiment: “It takes teamwork to make a dream work,” spoken by Dev Patel in The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.