Senior house officers in vocational training schemes for general practice

audit and the educational contract

LOUGH, MURRAY
KELLY, MOYA H
MURRAY, STUART

Correspondence to: Murray Lough, Assistant Director, Department of Postgraduate Medical Education, University of Glasgow, 1 Horselet Hill Road, Glasgow G12 9LX, UK. Tel: +44 (0)141 330 6187; fax: +44 (0)141 330 4737; email: murray. [email protected].

Murray Lough, FRCGP, and Moya H Kelly, PhD FRCGP, are Assistant Directors and Stuart Murray, MD PhD FRCGP, Director, of the Department of Postgraduate Medical Education at the University of Glasgow.

Accepted December 2001

Education for Primary Care 13(4):p 445-450, November 2002.

SUMMARY

This paper reports an observational study that monitored the submissions of criterion-based audit projects and significant event analyses from senior house officers in posts accredited for vocational training for general practice. The outcome measures were the percentages of completed audit cycles and significant events submitted for external assessment from each hospital post and problems identified during the process.

In total, 137 audit projects were submitted from an expected total of 341 (40%). Of these, 84 (60%) were criterion-based audit cycles and 53 (40%) were significant event analyses. SHOs in geriatrics submitted the most (45% of expected) and those in A&E the least (28% of expected). Forty-seven SHOs did not submit any project. Hospital posts accredited for training for general practice vary considerably in the output of an audit project by their SHOs. Despite this, it is possible for a criterion-based audit cycle and a significant event analysis to be completed and externally assessed within a six-month post. Problems were due to difficulties with identifying and following up SHOs, and large projects which were started but left unfinished.