GPSA Initiatives and Innovations

The Syndicate Employer Model

As part of GPSA’s work as a sector conduit, we are always looking for opportunities to improve the GP training landscape and empower our members through self-determination.
This is sometimes in conflict with government initiatives that tend to focus on controlling rather than enabling the individuals and business entities without whom there would be no primary healthcare sector in the future.
Recognising the Single Employer Model as one such control mechanism that could potentially threaten the independence of community primary healthcare, we came up with an alternative interpretation for the “SEM” acronym: the “Syndicate” Employer Model.
Presentation to Victorian university researchers, May 2023

Unifying the Medical Student Journey to GP Fellowship
through the Continuum of the Training Practice

Presentation to GPTAC, June 2023
  • Medical student attrition from general practice pathways following poor placement experiences
  • Prevocational learner attrition from general practice pathways following poor placement experiences (at point in education when hospital alternatives of greatest influence)
A growing number of practices keen to develop a learning culture for their teams:
  • unable to attain accreditation for registrars with current supply-demand issues
  • important to harness this desire to supervise and provide goals for quality

 
Impression of general practice as disjointed and dysfunctional from lack of uniformity in training practice expectations and supports (across individual university campuses let alone different universities / hospitals / RWAs etc)
While members of GPTAC are the key to driving change at the endpoint of GP training, GPSA has a role as sector conduit that we are willing to exploit to help connect in the university and prevocational stages of GP educational pathways to minimise attrition and increase attraction to the specialty by:
  • Bringing together the disparate parties involved in general practice pathways to develop a supported standards framework for training practices to work within
  • Facilitating the implementation and ongoing evaluation of standards through Steering Group consisting of GPTAC members plus other relevant parties (Medical Deans of Australia and New Zealand, CPMEC etc)
  • Create a pool of “qualified” practices / supervisors for the universities and RWAs to match students / learners with
  • General Practice Supervision Australia (GPSA) is the only national “supervision” peak
  • Develop and deliver educational modules aligned with practice standards for supervisors of medical students and prevocational learners to be recognised as having the capacity to provide quality placements
  • GPSA has the capacity to adapt 1000+ AGPT resources to supervisors and practices offering placements to medical students and prevocational learners, and further expand these to support supervision in general practice of nursing / allied health students
  • Training practices get little out of medical student / prevocational placements: but they are key to maintaining those students’ / learners’ interest in general practice
  • By uniting the disparate parties involved in general practice educational pathways, GPSA would have a voice in the creation of supervision pathways that honour and encourage quality training placements
  • There is currently little recognition of, thus minimal reward for, quality supervision in the medical student / prevocational space
  • With national standards comes recognition of quality; with recognition of quality comes reward

Date reviewed: 01 October 2023

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