By Dr Simon Thornton, GP Engagement Lead, Centre for Academic Primary Care, University of Bristol (left) and Professor Trevor Thompson, GP and Head of Primary Care Teaching, Centre for Academic Primary Care, University of Bristol (right)
For the last two years the teaching arm of the Centre for Academic Primary Care (CAPC) have been doing something a little different when it comes to Continuing Professional Development (CPD): a Teaching Festival, a day of activities that aims to celebrate and entertain as well inform and train.
This year our destination was Clevedon Hall, a stone’s throw from the marine lake on the shore at Clevedon. On display throughout the day was a collection of artwork produced by our medical students as well as photography by a local GP, Dr Jon Rees. The grounds are an absolute delight as was our programme of talks and activities.
The day started with an introduction to teaching for the coming (2023/24) academic year from the teaching team. If you’re interested in teaching medical students and haven’t seen it already, do take a look at our Teaching Brochure that gives you all the information you need about teaching next year.
In a ‘Teaching Dilemmas’ session, Dr Lucy Jenkins and Dr Kimberly Bruce used interactive theatre to explore difficult scenarios of concerns raised about a student’s behaviour, such as inappropriate use of social media and how to ensure that we are making our teaching inclusive for transgender students.
Professor Andrew Blythe, Head of Assessments at Bristol Medical School provided us with an overview of the assessments that our students take across the five years, and just before lunch, Professor Trevor Thompson tickled our funny bones with his debut stand-up performance.
After lunch, we were joined by Dr Caroline Walker (The Joyful Doctor) who discussed resilience and how we can continue to find enjoyment in our work as GPs and GP teachers.
We are fortunate to be part of a leading centre for primary care research (one of nine National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) funded research centres in the UK), so were delighted to be joined by our distinguished colleague, Professor Alastair Hay to hear how infection research in Bristol is making a difference to clinical practice.
Later in the afternoon, delegates had the opportunity to attend two of three parallel sessions. Dr Kimberly Bruce ran a session on intimate examinations, Dr Louise Whyte from BrisDoc talked to us about teaching medical students in urgent and unscheduled care settings and our new Community GP Leads for Gloucester and Bristol (Dr Karen Pond and Dr Adam McDermott) refreshed us on how to provide feedback.
The day closed with a debate between Dr Simon Thornton and Dr Hugh Alberti (Head of Primary Care Teaching at Newcastle University) about whether teaching medical students should ever be part of the GP contract. I think it’s fair to say that the jury is still out!
We are proud to be part of such a wonderful GP teaching community that delivers the highest standards of teaching to our students. For information about how to become a GP teacher, visit our website or email us at phc-teaching@bristol.ac.uk.
