Teaching IMP (Impact, Meaning, Priorities): supporting meaningful psychosocial exploration and tailored management...

General practice trainees are routinely encouraged to explore patients' psychosocial context as part of patient-centred care. However, educators frequently observe that this exploration can become superficial or formulaic, with questions about work, home life, or concerns functioning as tick-box exercises that do not meaningfully inform clinical decision making. Trainees may gather contextual information without understanding its relevance to patient priorities or to the development of tailored management plans.This article describes the use of IMP (Impact, Meaning, Priorities) as a practical educational intervention to support trainees in discovering psychosocial context with purpose. IMP provides a simple scaffold to help trainees explore how illness affects patients' lives (Impact), what personal significance patients attach to their symptoms (Meaning), and how this shapes what matters most to them at that point in time (Priorities). By foregrounding impact and meaning, IMP is intended to help illuminate patient priorities and support the creation of patient-centred, negotiated management plans.Drawing on established consultation models and informed by Helman's Folk Model of Illness, IMP has been used in GP training teaching sessions and simulated consultations as a complement to existing frameworks. This paper describes the educational rationale for IMP, outlines how it has been used in GP training and reflects on educators observations when used in teaching practice. It reflects on educators' observations regarding trainee confidence, depth of psychosocial exploration, and use of contextual information in clinical management.