Our Trainers' Workshops are held every 1-2 months; the usual venue being the Postgraduate Education Dept. Most sessions last around two hours, with the annual total of hours provided well in excess of the twelve hours minimum. Most trainers also participate in the annual two-day Residential Course for registrars each February.

Format

Members of the group take turns to facilitate the workshop according to their pre-agreed involvement in the particular topic of the session. At other times an outside resource is invited along to lead the discussion and group activities. The sessions are informally structured with round-the-table type discussion (not 'lectures') but nevertheless follow a standard format of introduction, any other business, main topic and group discussion/feedback, followed by planning the details of the next workshop.

Attendance registers are kept.

Planning Topics

Planning meetings are held approximately twice yearly. They include appraisal of the preceding workshops and their effectiveness in meeting our aims/objectives in previous planning - which in turn informs our choice of topic and structure of workshop in the next six months or so. Trainers present can propose areas which fit in with personal learning plans - often areas shared by other members of the group. Written proposals for the next series of workshops, with indications of our agreed aims for the sessions, are sent to all trainers after the planning meetings (and prior to individual workshops, included in the minutes of the last).

Written/Electronic Records

Written and electronic records of all workshop activities are fed back to all trainers following each workshop, and a copy kept at the Postgraduate Education Dept. This allows trainers who may have missed a session to keep up to date. The feedback includes a summary of discussion that takes place as part of the workshop or after group activities, and can include comments of the group on the usefulness/efficacy of a session in meeting our needs. Aims for the next workshop are included as above.

Collaboration with another scheme

About twice a year we hold collaborative trainers' activities with the Rotherham trainers, including planning and implementation of a residential 'away-weekend' for registrars of both schemes combined. The logistics of co-ordinating these activities are tricky but felt to be worth the effort by all concerned!

Prospective Trainers

Within the last few years there has been a groundswell of interest locally in GP training; prospective trainer (PT) workshops took off and became independent from the established trainer (ET) workshops. Initially the PT activities were facilitated by a Course Organiser as was agreed at their inception, but they became self-running by the PT group themselves. The separate workshops evolved in response to the PT group identifying their own learning needs for training as distinct from those of Ets. However, PTs do receive the information from the ET workshops and are welcome to attend any ET sessions.

Jim Walker, Course Organiser.

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