Volume 4

LEADING ARTICLES

Distance learning - quality or quantity?
Colin Kenny

CME - a time for reflection?
Ivan Benett and Avril Danczak

Whither continuing medical education?
Geoff Roberts

Two sides of the coin
Denis Pereira Gray

European Academy of Tearchers in General Practice
Justin Allen

A draft charter for general practice continuing education
Ali Al-Shehri, John Bligh and Ian Stanley

Assessment of vocational training: the present and the future
Jamie Bahrami

What happens next to quality care?
Oliver Samuel

ARTICLES

Helping trainees to grow: a course held for trainers in Devon and Cornwall
Moris Watt and Peter Featherstone
Trainers get to feel what it is like to be a trainee - and then help each other to learn.

The triadic approach to professional education
Alex Thomson , Phillip Barham and John Bensemann
Continuing education can be more useful if you ask two colleagues to help define your learning needs and assess your progress. This is how they do it in New Zealand.

Higher training for general practice in the Oxford region
BFR Baillon, R Flew, JC Hasler, TJ Juins and JP Toby
An exciting approach to higher professional training which is evolving all the time. The commiitment needed makes it valuable only to a minority of young principals.

How long did it take and what did it cost? A study of the time and costs involved in carrying out a research survey
Ruth Chambers
Like most good things reserach is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration. Is it worth it? This author has no doubt.

General practitioners and the medical student attachment: opportunities for advocacy
Jacqueline Lublin
Attached medical students evoke a whole range of feelings and attitudes in a group of Australian GPs.

The educational challange of improving prescribing
Tom Walley and John Bligh
Changing prescribing habits is a complex activity which requires a carefully planned and integrated educational approach.

The new course organizer - problems, anxieties and needs
Patrick McEvoy
A survey shows that new course organizers ofter feel uncertian of their role. What can be done to help?

Teaching social science in general practice
William Hall, Alison Evans and Nicky Britten
All you need to know - and more - about teaching social science to general practitioners. And don’t be put off by the name - it just means how people behave together.

Training doctors to re-enter general practice - a previously unmet need?
Peter Harringto, William Shannon and Gerard Bury
A five-week intensive course greatly increased the skills and confidence of those returning to general practice. This is what a ‘refresher’ should be about.

Personal construct analysis - a teaching tool for trainers
Aidan Dunn
A non-threatening method of comparing attitudes so that they can be modified if necessary.

Assessing the effect of a Balint weekend
Erica Jones and John Salinsky
Can the experience of one Balint weekend confer lasting benefits?

Encouraging general practice trainees to conduct research
Richard Hays, Martee Bushfield and Roger Strasser
Fishing in a pool of GP trainees with a good techinique and the right bait can yield a good catch of budding researchers.

The S-SDLRS: a short questionnaire about self-directed learning
John Bligh
A simple questionnaire gives useful information about how people learn. This can help in planning training programmes.

Trainer meets Examiner
Philip Tombleson
A conversation between a trainer and an MRCGP examiner throws some light on summative assessment.

Changes in attitudes to teaching and consulting following the Wessex general practice trainers’ course - the Urchfont experience.
John Pitts
Attitudes can change as a result of a short residential course, but for how long?

Lessons form a course on interviewing skills for established GP trainers
David Wall, Stephen Kelly, Chris Ball and Dominic Faux
If you happen to have some candidateds applying for your vocational training scheme, it is worth knowing how to interview them. Maybe it is not a bad idea to know how to interview people anyway.

Young pricipals and their problems
Gillian Plant (with comments by Marie Campkin)
Young principals often have difficulty coping with stress and bringing about change in their practices. Should we, and can we, help?

A comparison of general medical and dental practitioners’ attitudes to diagnosis and management of common oral and medical problems
Lorna Tapper-Jopnes
The mouth is a battleground between the differnt attitudes and skills of GPs and dentists. Can training help to make the peace - andimprove the care?

‘Making allowances’ - use of and attitudes towards the postgraduate education allowance
John Pitts
PGEA courses in one country are plentiful, but the quality varies. Can things improve as long as GPs feel that the money used to fund the PGEA has been stolen form them?

The hospital component of vocational training for general practice: the views of course organizers
William McN Styles, Janet Grant, Susan Golombok, John Rust and Tommy Bouchier-Hayes
Course organizers’ views on hospital consultants’ teaching skills and their attitude towards general practice.

Learner-centred feedback:
(i) An approach based on the consultation (ii) The wider context of feedback and assessment
Cliff Ashton and John Bligh
Consultation models can be adapted by the teacher to help in teaching trainees. The teacher can then move on to assessing the trainee in a wider context than is offered by one particular problem.

Learning in the Low Countries: an outsider’s view of continuing medical education for general practitioners in The Netherlands
Bob Rivett
A comprehensive account of GP education in The Netherlands challenges many assumptions of the UK system.

SUPPLEMENT - Volume 4, Number 1
The future of professional training for general practice
Ed. Idris Williams

TEACHING EXCHANGE

NEWS AND VIEWS

ASSOCIATION OF COURSE ORGANIZERS

A REGIONAL ADVISER’S DIARY

HASLAM ON TRAINING

BOOKS