Educational CPD: An exploration of the attitudes of UK GP trainers using focus groups and an activity theory framework

Abstract

BACKGROUND: There is a move to "professionalize" medical educators, but little has been published on the views of UK GP trainers to this change. AIMS: To explore the attitudes of GP trainers to their own professional development as teachers. METHODS: A focus group study was undertaken in a large UK Deanery. The emergent theory was developed using Activity Theory, which sees learning as a dynamic interaction between individuals and their cultural, social and historical setting. RESULTS: There were a range of factors influencing GP trainer development. GP trainers were more motivated to develop themselves as teachers when their GP registrar was perceived to be of high quality. There was ambivalence amongst trainers regarding university qualifications in medical education. The biggest obstacles to professional development were the attitudes of the GP trainer's partners, and the challenge of finding protected time. Trainers looked to the Deanery for leadership and direction for their educational CPD, but expressed disappointment that this was not more regularly in evidence. CONCLUSIONS: Incongruity exists between the professionalization of GP training and the feeling that trainers themselves have about the way they are regarded. GP trainer development can be understood more fully when viewed as a product of discourses between the trainer and their environment.