A review of GP trainees’ evaluations of placements in hospital and community medicine during 2020-21 within Malta’s specialist training programme in family medicine

Abstract

BACKGROUND: One of the major speciality rotations in Malta’s Specialist Training Programme in Family Medicine (STPFM) is in medicine. From 2020, changes were implemented in the logistics of this post regarding sub-speciality assignments and out-of-hours exposure.

OBJECTIVE: A review of GP trainees’ evaluations of their medicine training placements during 2020-21 was carried out to identify how satisfied the GP trainees were with the effectiveness of teaching provided, what major difficulties they experienced and how the educational value of the post could be improved.

METHOD: After completion of clinical rotations, GP trainees fill in evaluation forms on an ePortfolio. Feedback given for medicine posts during 2020-21 was exported to Microsoft Excel. After the information was anonymised, quantitative and qualitative analyses were carried out.

RESULTS: Nine of out ten GP trainees were satisfied with the effectiveness of teaching provided during medicine posts. While difficulties experienced included the transition from family to hospital medicine, the challenges of night duties and the lack of learning during ward rounds, proposed improvements comprised increased emphasis on outpatient sessions for training, placements in more than just one sub-specialty and close guidance and supervision during duties.

CONCLUSION: Despite high satisfaction ratings for teaching during medicine rotations during 2020-21, a number of important difficulties were identified and crucial improvements suggested by GP trainees.

RECOMMENDATIONS: Medicine posts during the STPFM can be improved as teaching experiences for GP trainees through enhanced supervision, hands-on outpatient teaching, wider sub-specialty exposure and the introduction of training in telemedicine to complement face-to-face clinical practice.