What's A Clinical Supervisor?

Clinical Supervisors are qualified specialists who have responsibility for the day-to-day supervision, training and assessment of trainees who are doing a secondary care placement in their specialty.   Therefore a GP Trainer, GP Educational Supervisor or GP (Training) Programme Directors cannot be clinical supervisors.  If a trainee is in an integrated post, then they will have a nominated clinical supervisor for each specialty. Make sure you find out who yours is. There is more about the Clinical Supervisor's role below.

NEED TO DO:

• In hospital posts, this should be done by the consultant who knows the trainee’s work best even if the e portfolio doesn’t have their name as clinical supervisor. 
• The trainee’s educational supervisor, who oversees their progress throughout training, needs it for their review meeting with the trainee (end of month 4: May and Nov each year).
 

 



if your clinical supervisor looks like this, let us know and we'll assign you another one

 

 

 

What's The Report Then?

 

Because a clinical supervisor refers to specialists in secondary care, a clinical supervisor's report can only ever generated in hospital posts. The e-portfolio has a section for the clinical supervisor to write a short structure report on the trainee at the end of each hospital post. This covers

 

* the knowledge base relevant to the post

* practical skills relevant to the post

* the professional competencies

 

The electronic form provides reminders of the definitions of the competencies to make writing the report easier. It may also be helpful to refer to the relevant curriculum statement on the RCGP website in reporting on the knowledge and skills relevant to the post

 

 

 

What's The Point Of It?

 

The report should

 

1. identify any significant developmental needs identified during a placement

 

2. point up any areas where the trainee has shown particular strengths

 

3. describe the progress of the trainee in terms of the evidence of competence rather than pass or fail.

 

If there are serious issues of professional performance or ill-health during a placement these will need to be handled by normal acute trust/primary care trust/deanery mechanisms. In such circumstances always liaise with the programme director of the training scheme and with deanery as early as possible.

 

 

 

Clinical Supervisors

Clinical Supervisors are qualified specialists who have responsibility for the day-to-day supervision, training and assessment of trainees who are doing a secondary care placement in their specialty.  Therefore a GP Trainer, GP Educational Supervisor or GP (Training) Programme Directors cannot be a clinical supervisor. If a trainee is in an integrated post, then they will have a clinical supervisor for each specialty. 


Guide to nMRCGP for Clinical Supervisors
The Guide for Clinical Supervisors has been produced by the RCGP in consultation with NACT and COGPED to explain the model of supervision, to provide a brief introduction to assessment and to give guidance on what a consultant providing clinical supervision for GP trainees is expected to do.


The Gold Guide (section 4.27) requires that:
each trainee should have a named clinical supervisor for each placement, usually a senior doctor, who is responsible for ensuring that appropriate clinical supervision of the trainee’s day-to-day clinical performance occurs at all times, with regular feedback. 

All clinical supervisors should:

• Understand their responsibilities for patient safety.
• Be fully trained in the specific area of clinical care.
• Offer a level of supervision necessary to the competences and experience of the trainee and tailored for the individual trainee.
• Ensure that no trainee is required to assume responsibility for or perform clinical, operative or other techniques in which they have insufficient experience and expertise.
• Ensure that trainees only perform tasks without direct supervision when the clinical supervisor is satisfied that they are competent so to do; both trainee and clinical supervisor should at all times be aware of their direct responsibilities for the safety of patients in their care.
• Consider whether it is appropriate (particularly out of hours) to delegate the role of clinical supervisor to another senior member of the healthcare team.  In these circumstances the individual must be clearly identified to both parties and understand the role of the clinical supervisor.  The named clinical supervisor remains responsible and accountable for the care of the patient and the trainee.
• Be appropriately trained to teach, provide feedback and undertake competence assessment of the trainees in the specialty.
• Be trained in equality and diversity and human rights best practice.

Responsibilities
Clinical supervisors oversee the day-to-day work of the trainee during that placement. 
They are expected to:

• hold formative meetings with their trainee at the beginning, middle and end of their placement. 
• use WPBA assessment tools as learning opportunities, formative assessments and to provide evidence towards the record of competence progression collected in the trainee’s eportfolio.
• complete a Clinical Supervisors Report (CSR) at the end of the placement.  If a trainee is in an integrated post working concurrently in more than one specialty, then each clinical supervisor will complete a CSR.