What does a GP educator role involve?

Many GPs find that becoming an educator is more achievable than they initially thought, and it brings profound professional satisfaction alongside tangible benefits for their practice and patients. To help you understand what’s involved in your role as a GP educator, we’ve outlined key information below to ensure both you and your trainee get the most from the experience.

Protected time for educators 

As a GP trainer you should have a minimum of one hour per week non-trainee facing protected time per GP registrar. This allows time for reviewing the portfolio, preparing for tutorials and other training-related activities. This is in addition to the protected time with the trainee for tutorials and debriefs.

Supporting your GP registrar

As a GP trainer, you'll provide the foundation for your GP registrar to develop into a confident, capable primary care professional. Here's what you need to know about the educational contract and expectations for training.

GP registrar timetables

GP registrar timetables must comply with the resident doctor's contract, with hours monitored by HR in the employing trust. Hours must not exceed 40 hours per week for a full-time GP registrar (including protected breaks).

For a full-time GP registrar, the breakdown is as follows (with LTFT pro-rata hours):

Clinical time: 21 hours. This includes surgeries, visits and clinical debriefs. Debriefs are clinical time unless they are more than 30 minutes in duration and timetabled as educational debriefs.

Administration time: 7 hours.

Educational time: 12 hours, split as follows:

• structured educational time at the practice: 4 hours. This must include at least 2 hours of tutorial time (which can be individual, joint with other GP registrars or learners at the practice, or a combination of both). It may also include joint surgeries, practice meetings and educational debriefs as defined above
• half day release: 4 hours
• protected study time: 4 hours. This should be in one block, though it is acceptable if split into a maximum of two sessions
• protected breaks: These are included in the overall hours and the time for them can be taken from any of the above areas. It is recommended that this is split between each area

Adapting to your GP registrar's needs

Certain aspects of the GP registrar timetable will need to be adapted depending on their stage of training and individual capabilities. These are as follows:

• appointment length: Appointment lengths will generally reduce as your GP registrar becomes more experienced, and this should be monitored on an individual basis. For ST1s, appointments typically start at 30 minutes, reducing in stages to 15 minutes by the end of the post. ST3s generally start at 15 to 20 minutes, reducing to 10 minutes (or the rate of other GPs at the practice if longer) by the end of the post
• urgent and unscheduled care: This may include telephone triage and involvement in on-call or duty doctor roles. Consider how this can be incorporated into the GP registrar timetable in a proportionate and appropriately supervised way
• home visits: GP registrars can be asked to visit three times a week. Home visits should initially be directly supervised. Once your GP registrar is able, they can undertake home visits independently. Ensure that visits are appropriate for their stage of training, and that they have a way to contact a supervisor during any home visit
• tasks and test results: GP registrars should be responsible for managing their own tasks and blood results, with training and supervision to enable them to do this. For ST3 GP registrars at the end of training, it may be acceptable to ask them to manage a select number of results for other GPs, for training purposes
• insurance and other paperwork: In general, GP registrars should not be asked to complete insurance reports. Exceptions can be made if the GP registrar knows the patient well and the report is completed as a learning exercise. GP registrars should be responsible for managing letters generated from their referrals, or any other paperwork they have generated

Approved learning environment requirements

Explore the specific criteria and responsibilities required to ensure your practice meets the standards for supporting a GP registrar as an approved learning environment, including supervision, educational resources, and compliance with regulatory guidelines.