This Code of Conduct outlines the expectations, responsibilities, and operational considerations for GPs who wish to undertake training roles within the practice, including supervising medical students, nursing students, and GP registrars.
The aim is to ensure that training activities do not compromise patient care, disrupt practice operations, or place undue burden on colleagues.
Penrose Health supports training initiatives wherever possible, but they must be balanced against the needs of patients and colleagues. By adhering to these guidelines, trainers can contribute effectively to medical education while upholding the integrity of the practice.
General Principles
Penrose Health is pleased to support GP trainers and medical education, provided that teaching commitments do not negatively impact capacity, quality of patient care or the operational efficiency of the practice.
GP trainers must:
- maintain their ability to fulfil their clinical duties, including seeing all patients as normal, being on call, completing administrative tasks, and supervising members of our multidisciplinary team.
- not reduce the number of available patient appointments (unless explicitly agreed) or compromise the standard of patient care.
- utilise their own time or compensate for appointments lost due to teaching (unless explicitly agreed).
- obtain prior consent from colleagues before arranging shadowing, and ensure the duration is reasonable and does not disrupt colleagues’ work.
- have in place a structured rota and plan (to be shared with your line manager) to ensure smooth integration of training responsibilities.
- in cases of planned absences (e.g. holidays), have a clear plan in place (to be shared with your line manager) to ensure continuity of supervision, without placing undue burden on colleagues.
- ensure that their teaching activities do not result in additional workload for their colleagues such as refusal to see patients, being on call or doing admin.
Approval Process
Applications to teach must be agreed upon by both the trainer and Penrose Health.
The practice will review applications based on ability to meet the general principles outlined above.
We endeavour to support GP trainers and medical education wherever possible, however, is not a contractual obligation of Penrose Health to approve teaching commitments.
Reviewing Training Responsibilities
Applications that are approved are not indefinite, and will be reviewed annually.
If training commitments become unmanageable for the trainer, or negatively impact patient care or the wider practice team, Penrose Health reserves the right to refuse or withdraw training approval.
The following factors will be taken into consideration when reviewing training responsibilities:
- Whether there is significant disruption to normal operations, i.e. patient care or appointment availability, impact on other staff members because of training responsibilities.
- Whether there is sufficient room availability and practice capacity.
- If a GP trainer is struggling with workload or facing significant absences, or their well-being is being significantly affected by training responsibilities.
- If you have any questions or are interested in becoming a trainer, please reach out to Charlie Allen to discuss this