AKT – Education in General Practice

Michael Tran, aged 28, is a final year medical student completing a general practice placement. He has noticed that his supervisor often asks open-ended questions and uses silence effectively in consultations, which contrasts with the more directive style he learned in hospital rotations.

Michael asks for feedback on how to develop these communication skills himself during the placement.

What is the MOST appropriate educational strategy for the supervisor to use to support this learning?

Jacqui Jones, aged 42, is a registrar on her first general practice term. Her supervisor notices that she rarely seeks feedback and appears uncertain in her management plans. During a tutorial, Jacqui discloses she finds general practice isolating compared to hospital settings.

What is the MOST appropriate action for the supervisor?

Amrit Singh, aged 33, is an IMG currently working under Level 1 supervision in general practice. His supervisor is concerned about his limited understanding of Australian preventive health guidelines, especially around cancer screening.

What is the MOST appropriate educational intervention?

Stephanie Wu, aged 25, is a medical student doing a 4-week rural GP placement. She is struggling with maintaining boundaries with patients who she sees regularly outside the clinic. She raises this with her supervisor during a tutorial.

What is the MOST appropriate response by the supervisor?

David Solomon, aged 58, is a GP supervisor who has been asked to host a new registrar in his practice. He wants to improve the quality of his feedback conversations, as previous registrars have found his feedback vague.

What is the MOST evidence-based method he should use to enhance feedback effectiveness?

Neha Kapoor, aged 45, is a GP registrar preparing for her RACGP fellowship exams. She expresses anxiety about her clinical reasoning under exam pressure and feels she often jumps to conclusions during consultations.

Her supervisor wants to help her improve diagnostic reasoning skills in day-to-day practice.

What is the MOST appropriate strategy?

Peter Lawson, aged 38, is a new GP supervisor. He is mentoring a registrar who is hesitant to disclose when they are unsure about clinical decisions. Peter is keen to foster psychological safety in their supervisory relationship.

Which of the following is the MOST effective approach to foster a safe learning environment?

Sara Leung, aged 31, is a final-year GP registrar who has undertaken a placement at an Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Service. She wants to understand more about culturally safe practices in primary care settings.

What is the MOST appropriate strategy to enhance her learning in this area?

Tom Reyes, aged 27, is a PGY2 doctor on a general practice rotation. His supervisor has noted that Tom frequently interrupts patients early in the consultation. Tom reports feeling pressure to get through his consults quickly and assumes he knows what the issue is early on.

What is the MOST effective strategy to help Tom improve?

Aisha Khan, aged 34, is a GP registrar who has received informal patient feedback about her excellent empathy but frequent running overtime. Her supervisor wants to help her balance rapport building with time management.

What is the MOST appropriate strategy?

Jenna Wallace, aged 26, is a junior GP registrar who has recently started at your practice. During the first week, she asks few questions and appears anxious. Her clinical reasoning is sound but she lacks confidence in decision-making and often double-checks basic management plans.

What is the MOST appropriate supervisor response?

Owen Li, aged 40, is a GP supervisor conducting his first formal teaching session with a new registrar. He wants to encourage active engagement, discussion of clinical reasoning and reflection on decisions.

Which of the following teaching strategies BEST facilitates this?

Charlotte Ng, aged 30, is a GP registrar who has received feedback that her consultation notes are brief and lack clarity. Her supervisor notes inconsistent documentation of safety netting and differential diagnoses.

What is the MOST appropriate educational intervention?

Mateo Fernández, aged 47, is an IMG in his first GP placement. He has excellent medical knowledge but receives mixed feedback on patient rapport. He tends to use formal, directive language and rarely explores patients’ ideas or concerns.

What is the MOST appropriate educational strategy to develop patient-centred communication?

Hannah Macleod, aged 29, is a registrar preparing for her final OSCE exams. She reports that she feels confident with knowledge but struggles with structuring consultations under time pressure. Her supervisor is planning a focused teaching session.

What is the MOST effective teaching approach to address this issue?

Eliza Thomas, aged 24, is a medical student completing a GP placement. She feels uncertain about formulating differential diagnoses and often focuses on one working diagnosis without considering alternatives.

Her supervisor wants to encourage safe diagnostic habits. What is the MOST effective educational strategy?

Dr Harish Bedi is supervising a registrar who regularly fails to identify key psychosocial issues during patient consultations. The registrar tends to focus on physical symptoms and avoids exploring sensitive topics.

What is the MOST appropriate supervisor response?

Samira Hassan, aged 36, is a new GP registrar who tends to over-investigate patients with vague symptoms. Her supervisor notices frequent ordering of imaging and pathology tests with low diagnostic yield.

What is the MOST effective teaching strategy to address this?

Benjamin Reid, aged 32, is a GP registrar completing his second term. He frequently refers patients for specialist review without exploring whether management could occur in primary care. His supervisor wants to help improve clinical confidence and appropriate referral skills.

What is the MOST appropriate educational intervention?

Clara Yu, aged 29, is a GP registrar working in a small rural town. She reports struggling with the emotional toll of repeated presentations of chronic illness, social disadvantage and limited resources.

What is the MOST appropriate support strategy?

Rachel Kim, aged 30, is a GP registrar in an urban clinic. Her supervisor notes that she tends to focus heavily on guideline-based management, sometimes missing patient preferences or cultural considerations. This has led to reduced engagement in some consultations.

What is the MOST appropriate way to help Rachel improve her person-centred care approach?

Declan O’Shea, aged 53, is a GP supervisor mentoring a registrar who consistently under-documents important aspects of mental health assessments. Risk factors, protective factors, and safety planning are often omitted from notes.

What is the MOST effective educational approach to improve this?

Amelia D’Souza, aged 45, is a new GP supervisor. She has noticed her registrar gives limited feedback when debriefing shared consultations. Amelia wants to model and teach effective feedback techniques in daily practice.

What is the MOST appropriate strategy to achieve this?

Luke Davidson, aged 28, is a GPT1 registrar who often appears disorganised in his consultations, with poor time management and documentation. He frequently runs over time and struggles with prioritising problems.

What is the MOST appropriate educational intervention?

Dr Sanjay Rao, a GP educator, is leading a workshop on clinical reasoning for registrars. He wants to use an approach that helps learners unpack their thought process and identify cognitive biases.

Which of the following methods is MOST effective for this purpose?

Angela Fox, aged 22, is a final-year medical student completing her general practice term. She is competent in clinical tasks but tends to avoid taking initiative and relies heavily on direct instructions.

What is the MOST appropriate supervisor strategy to foster independent thinking?

Marco Fenech, aged 34, is a GPT2 registrar who presents a case of a child with fever. His differential is reasonable, but he appears uncomfortable managing uncertainty and seeks validation for every decision.

What is the MOST effective approach to improve his tolerance of clinical uncertainty?

Olivia Tran, aged 40, is an experienced practice nurse who is now involved in teaching medical students during their GP placements. She feels uncertain about how to structure a teaching session.

What is the MOST appropriate advice to support her in this new role?

Callum Brigg, aged 26, is a new registrar working in a large teaching practice. He expresses that he’s overwhelmed by the volume of learning expectations and unsure how to prioritise what to study during his term.

What is the MOST appropriate supervisor strategy to support his learning?

Melissa Iqbal, aged 37, is a GPT3 registrar with an interest in education. She asks to lead a teaching session for junior students. Her supervisor wants to support this but ensure educational quality.

What is the MOST appropriate way to support Melissa?

Tamara Singh, aged 31, is a GP registrar who consistently documents well but struggles to summarise complex patient cases verbally. This impacts her ability to present efficiently in case discussions.

What is the MOST appropriate educational strategy to address this?

Yusuf Khan, aged 35, is a registrar who avoids discussing uncertainty or alternative diagnoses with patients, fearing it might reduce their confidence in him.

What is the MOST appropriate teaching strategy to improve his communication about diagnostic uncertainty?

Nina Martens, aged 29, is a registrar who frequently relies on investigations rather than physical examination to reach diagnoses. Her supervisor notes that her examination findings are often incomplete or omitted.

What is the MOST effective way to improve Nina’s examination skills?

Dr Karen Woo is supervising a GPT1 registrar, who becomes defensive when receiving feedback, especially on communication style. The registrar interrupts and justifies their actions during feedback sessions.

What is the MOST appropriate supervisor approach?

Isaac Bradbury, aged 30, is a registrar who has shown limited engagement during scheduled tutorials. He attends but does not participate and appears distracted. His clinical work is adequate.

What is the MOST appropriate supervisor action?

Ellie Zhang, aged 42, is a new GP supervisor who is unsure how to assess her registrar’s progression beyond clinical knowledge. She wants to include professionalism, communication, and teamwork.

What is the MOST appropriate assessment tool to support this?

Joseph Franklin, aged 36, is a GPT2 registrar with excellent theoretical knowledge but has received multiple complaints about abrupt communication with patients. His supervisor wishes to explore this in a safe, educational way.

What is the MOST appropriate approach?

Sarah Papadakis, aged 39, is a GP registrar who tends to present long, detailed histories during teaching sessions without clinical synthesis. This makes case discussions inefficient.

What is the MOST appropriate educational strategy?

Ahmed Halim, aged 44, is a supervisor concerned about unconscious bias in clinical reasoning after observing a registrar making assumptions about a patient’s medication adherence based on ethnicity.

What is the MOST appropriate teaching intervention?

Mei Chen, aged 27, is a new registrar who struggles with adapting consultation style when seeing elderly patients. She appears rushed and misses key aspects like functional status and medication reconciliation.

What is the MOST appropriate supervisor response?

Daniela Ruiz, aged 33, is a registrar who becomes flustered when patients present with multiple problems. She tends to address each issue superficially and runs overtime.

What is the MOST effective strategy to support her development?

Andrew Collins, aged 49, is a GP supervisor working with a registrar who shows inconsistent use of guidelines and evidence in management decisions. The registrar struggles to apply evidence in real-time consultations.

What is the MOST appropriate educational intervention?

Priya Anand, aged 27, is a registrar in a teaching practice where students are regularly present. She is unsure how to balance her clinical duties with teaching obligations, and reports feeling underprepared when students ask questions mid-consultation.

What is the MOST appropriate supervisor strategy?

Kylie Dawson, aged 31, is a GPT3 registrar preparing for Fellowship exams. She performs well in tutorials but underperforms in mock clinical assessments due to anxiety and lack of structure.

What is the MOST effective supervisor intervention?

Dr Lynette Boyle is supervising a registrar in a remote Aboriginal Medical Service. The registrar is hesitant to ask patients about social determinants of health and appears unsure how to navigate culturally sensitive discussions.

What is the MOST appropriate supervisor strategy?

Lucy Brennan, aged 26, is a medical student who seems reluctant to speak during patient consultations. She says she is unsure when it’s appropriate to ask questions and doesn’t want to disrupt the consult.

What is the MOST appropriate supervisor strategy?

Tommy Le, aged 28, is a registrar who regularly uses medical jargon in patient consultations. Feedback indicates that patients often seem confused and ask for clarification post-consultation.

What is the MOST effective supervisor intervention?

Aisha Noor, aged 33, is a registrar who is comfortable with acute care but struggles to manage chronic disease proactively. She often waits for patients to raise issues rather than implementing recall or preventive care systems.

What is the MOST appropriate educational approach?

James Kirk, aged 38, is a registrar completing his extended skills term in dermatology. He has excellent clinical knowledge but struggles to teach junior colleagues, often giving long lectures without engagement.

What is the MOST appropriate advice to support his teaching development?

Natasha Cooper, aged 41, is a registrar who lacks confidence in assessing children under five. She avoids paediatric consults when possible and says she is ‘not good with kids’.

What is the MOST appropriate supervisor strategy?