Can general practice trainees engage with leadership activities during their GP training placements? - An evaluation...

Leadership is one of the GMC's Generic Professional Capabilities for all medical specialties, but engagement in leadership activities is not currently routinely built into general practice (GP) training. We explored whether GP trainees in their first year of speciality training (ST1) could engage with a leadership activity in their practice placement. GP trainees were invited to participate in a voluntary leadership activity, with a small menu of optional activities to choose from. Evaluation was through electronic survey of trainees and educational supervisors (ESs) before and after the GP placement, and through trainee focus groups after the placement. 89 trainees and 191 supervisors were surveyed at the start of the trial. Trainees felt supported by supervisors and practice team members. Both groups felt that leadership skills were important for a trainee's future career. Supervisors placed more emphasis on this than trainees. Identified barriers included lack of protected time, other training priorities, lack of empowerment, and personal issues. Most trainees and their supervisors felt that a leadership activity was possible during the first year of general practice training. More work needs to be done to see if these results are generalisable to trainees across demographic subgroups, and in other years of training.