Simon Morgan

Study protocol: The registrar clinical encounters in training (ReCEnT) study

BackgroundPatient encounters are the core learning activity of Australian general practice (family practice) training. Exposure to patient demographics and presentations may vary from one general practice registrar (vocational trainee) to another. This can affect comprehensiveness of training. Currently, there is no mechanism to systematically capture the content of GP registrar consultations. The aim of the Registrar Clinical Encounters in Training (ReCEnT) study is to document longitudinally the nature and associations of consultation-based clinical and educational experiences of general practice registrars.Methods/designThis is an ongoing prospective multi-site cohort study of general practice registrars’ consultations, entailing paper-based recording of consultation data. The study setting is general practices affiliated with three geographically-based Australian general practice regional training providers. Registrars record details of 60 consecutive consultations. Data collected includes registrar demographics, details of the consultation, patient demographics, reasons for encounter and problems managed. Problems managed are coded with the International Classification of Primary Care (second edition) classification system. Additionally, registrars record educational factors related to the encounter. The study will follow the clinical exposure of each registrar six-monthly over the 18 months to two years (full-time equivalent) of their general practice training program.ConclusionsThe study will provide data on a range of factors (patient, registrar and consultation factors). This data will be used to inform a range of educational decisions as well as being used to answer educational research questions. We plan to use ReCEnT as a formative assessment tool for registrars and help identify and address educational needs. The study will facilitate program evaluation by the participating training providers and thus improve articulation of educational programs with practice experience. From the research point of view it will address an evidence gap – the in-practice clinical and educational experience of general practice trainees, determinants of these experiences, and the determinants of registrars’ patterns of practice (for example, prescribing practice) over the course of their training.

Problems managed by Australian general practice trainees: results from the ReCenT (Registrar Clinical Encounters in Training) study.

UNLABELLED BACKGROUND Previous studies have found that general practitioner (GP) trainees (registrars) see a different spectrum of clinical problems compared to trainers, including less chronic disease and more acute minor illness. Our aim was to describe the case mix of first-term Australian GP trainees. METHODS This was a cross-sectional analysis of trainee consultations. Descriptive analyses were used to report patient demographics and the number and type of problems managed. RESULTS Two-hundred-and-three trainees provided data on 36182 consultations and 55740 problems. Overall, 60.7% of patients seen were female and 56.2% were new to the trainee. Trainees managed a mean of 154.1 problems per 100 encounters. Problems managed most commonly were respiratory (23.9 per 100 encounters), general/unspecified (21.8) and skin (16.4). New problems comprised 51.5% of the total, and 22.4% of problems were chronic diseases. CONCLUSION Trainees gain reasonably broad exposure overall in terms of patient demographics and problems managed. In comparison to established GPs, trainees managed the same mean number of problems, but the nature of problems managed was different, with more new patients, more new problems and less chronic disease. Our findings have significant implications for GP training in Australia.

Family medicine trainees’ clinical experience of chronic disease during training: a cross-sectional analysis from the registrars’ clinical encounters in training study

BackgroundA broad case-mix in family physicians’ (general practitioners’, GPs’) vocational trainee experience is deemed essential in producing competent independent practitioners. It is suggested that the patient-mix should include common and significant conditions and be similar to that of established GPs. But the content of contemporary GP trainees’ clinical experience in training is not well-documented. In particular, how well trainees’ experience reflects changing general practice demographics (with an increasing prevalence of chronic disease) is unknown. We aimed to establish levels of trainees’ clinical exposure to chronic disease in training (and associations of this exposure) and to establish content differences in chronic disease consultations (compared to other consultations), and differences in trainees’ actions arising from these consultations.MethodsA cross-sectional analysis from the Registrars’ Clinical Encounters in Training (ReCEnT) study, a cohort study of GP registrars’ (trainees’) consultations in four Australian GP training organisations. Trainees record detailed data from 60 consecutive consultations per six-month training term. Diagnoses/problems encountered are coded using the International Classification of Primary Care-2 PLUS (ICPC-2 PLUS). A classification system derived from ICPC-2 PLUS was used to define diagnoses/problems as chronic/non-chronic disease. The outcome factor for analyses was trainees’ consultations in which chronic disease was encountered. Independent variables were a range of patient, trainee, practice, consultation and educational factors.ResultsOf 48,112 consultations (of 400 individual trainees), 29.5% included chronic disease problems/diagnoses. Associations of a consultation including chronic disease were the patient being older, male, and having consulted the trainee previously, and the practice routinely bulk-billing (not personally charging) patients. Consultations involving a chronic disease lasted longer, dealt with more problems/diagnoses, and were more likely to result in specialist referrals and trainees generating a personal learning goal. They were associated with less pathology tests being ordered.ConclusionsTrainees saw chronic disease less frequently than have established GPs in comparable studies. The longer duration and more frequent generation of learning goals in chronic disease-containing consultations suggest trainees may find these consultations particularly challenging. Our findings may inform the design of measures aimed at increasing the chronic disease component of trainees’ patient-mix.

Continuity of care in general practice vocational training: prevalence, associations and implications for training

Abstract Continuity of care is a defining characteristic of general practice. Practice structures may limit continuity of care experience for general practice registrars (trainees). This study sought to establish prevalence and associations of registrars’ continuity of care. We performed an analysis of an ongoing cohort study of Australian registrars’ clinical consultations. Primary outcome factors were ‘Upstream’ continuity (having seen the patient prior to the index consultation) and ‘Downstream’ continuity (follow-up organised post-index consultation). Independent variables were registrar, practice, patient, consultation and educational factors. 400 registrars recorded 48,114 consultations. 43% of patients had seen the registrar pre-index consultation, and 49% had follow-up organised. ‘Upstream’ continuity associations included registrar seniority, Australian medical qualification, practice billing policy, smaller practice size, registrar’s previous training in the practice, chronic disease and older, female patients (but not registrar full-time/part-time status). Associations of ‘Downstream’ continuity included non-Australian qualification, billing, chronic disease and the patient having seen the registrar previously. Consultations prompting follow-up were more complex: longer duration, involving more problems and generating more learning goals. There was, however, evidence for limited educational utility of this ‘continuity’. In our study, continuity of care in Australian registrars’ training experience is modest. Associations are complex, but may inform initiatives to increase in-training continuity.

Changing the Antibiotic Prescribing of general practice registrars: the ChAP study protocol for a prospective controlled study of a multimodal educational intervention.

BackgroundAustralian General Practitioners (GPs) are generous prescribers of antibiotics, prompting concerns including increasing antimicrobial resistance in the community. Recent data show that GPs in vocational training have prescribing patterns comparable with the high prescribing rate of their established GP supervisors. Evidence-based guidelines consistently advise that antibiotics are not indicated for uncomplicated upper respiratory tract infections (URTI) and are rarely indicated for acute bronchitis. A number of interventions have been trialled to promote rational antibiotic prescribing by established GPs (with variable effectiveness), but the impact of such interventions in a training setting is unclear. We hypothesise that intervening while early-career GPs are still developing their practice patterns and prescribing habits will result in better adherence to evidence-based guidelines as manifested by lower antibiotic prescribing rates for URTIs and acute bronchitis.Methods/designThe intervention consists of two online modules, a face-to-face workshop for GP trainees, a face-to-face workshop for their supervisors and encouragement for the trainee-supervisor dyad to include a case-based discussion of evidence-based antibiotic prescribing in their weekly one-on-one teaching meetings.We will use a non-randomised, non-equivalent control group design to assess the impact on antibiotic prescribing for acute upper respiratory infections and acute bronchitis by GP trainees in vocational training.DiscussionEarly-career GPs who are still developing their clinical practice and prescribing habits are an underutilized target-group for interventions to curb the growth of antimicrobial resistance in the community. Interventions that are embedded into existing training programs or are linked to continuing professional development have potential to increase the impact of existing interventions at limited additional cost.Trial registrationAustralian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry, ACTRN12614001209684 (registered 17/11/2014).

Does brief chronic pain management education change opioid prescribing rates? A pragmatic trial in Australian early-career general practitioners.

Abstract We aimed to evaluate the effect of pain education on opioid prescribing by early-career general practitioners. A brief training workshop was delivered to general practice registrars of a single regional training provider. The workshop significantly reduced “hypothetical” opioid prescribing (in response to paper-based vignettes) in an earlier evaluation. The effect of the training on “actual” prescribing was evaluated using a nonequivalent control group design nested within the Registrar Clinical Encounters in Training (ReCEnT) cohort study: 4 other regional training providers were controls. In ReCEnT, registrars record detailed data (including prescribing) during 60 consecutive consultations, on 3 occasions. Analysis was at the level of individual problem managed, with the primary outcome factor being prescription of an opioid analgesic and the secondary outcome being opioid initiation. Between 2010 and 2015, 168,528 problems were recorded by 849 registrars. Of these, 71% were recorded by registrars in the nontraining group. Eighty-two percentages were before training. Opioid analgesics were prescribed in 4382 (2.5%, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.40-2.63) problems, with 1665 of these (0.97%, 95% CI: 0.91-1.04) representing a new prescription. There was no relationship between the training and total prescribing after training (interaction odds ratio: 1.01; 95% CI: 0.75-1.35; P value 0.96). There was some evidence of a reduction in initial opioid prescriptions in the training group (interaction odds ratio: 0.74; 95% CI: 0.48-1.16; P value 0.19). This brief training package failed to increase overall opioid cessation. The inconsistency of these actual prescribing results with “hypothetical” prescribing behavior suggests that reducing opioid prescribing in chronic noncancer pain requires more than changing knowledge and attitudes.

Anticholinergic medicines in an older primary care population: a cross-sectional analysis of medicines' levels of anticholinergic activity and clinical indications.

Adverse clinical outcomes have been associated with cumulative anticholinergic burden (to which low‐potency as well as high‐potency anticholinergic medicines contribute). The clinical indications for which anticholinergic medicines are prescribed (and thus the ‘phenotype’ of patients with anticholinergic burden) have not been established. We sought to establish the overall prevalence of prescribing of anticholinergic medicines, the prevalence of prescribing of low‐, medium‐ and high‐potency anticholinergic medicines, and the clinical indications for which the medicines were prescribed in an older primary care population.

Reducing general practice trainees' antibiotic prescribing for respiratory tract infections: an evaluation of a combined face-to-face workshop and online educational intervention.

Abstract Over-prescription of antibiotics for non-pneumonia respiratory tract infections (RTIs) is a major concern in general practice. Australian general practice registrars (trainees) have inappropriately high rates of prescription of antibiotics for RTIs. The ‘apprenticeship’ educational model and the trainee–trainer relationship are drivers of this inappropriate prescribing. We aimed to reduce registrars’ non-pneumonia RTI antibiotic prescribing via an educational intervention (a 90-min face-to-face workshop supported by online modules), complemented by delivery of the same intervention, separately, to their trainers. We conducted a pre- and post-intervention comparison of the registrars’ intention to prescribe antibiotics for common RTIs using McNemar’s test. We similarly tested changes in supervisors’ intended prescribing. Prescribing intentions were elicited by responses to six written clinical vignettes (upper respiratory tract infection, otitis media, sore throat and three acute bronchitis vignettes). We found that, for registrars, there were statistically significant reductions in antibiotic prescribing for the sore throat (24.0% absolute reduction), otitis media (17.5% absolute reduction) and two of the three acute bronchitis (12.0% and 18.0% absolute reduction) vignettes. There were significant reductions in supervisors’ antibiotic prescribing intentions for the same four vignettes. We conclude that our intervention produced a significant change in registrars’ intention to prescribe antibiotics for non-pneumonia RTIs.

How we use patient encounter data for reflective learning in family medicine training

Abstract Introduction: Consulting with patients is the core learning activity of Australian family medicine (general practice/GP) training, providing a rich source of reflective learning for trainees. We have developed a reflective learning program for postgraduate vocational trainees based on clinical encounters. Methods: The Registrar Clinical Encounters in Training (ReCEnT) program is an educational program documenting GP trainees’ consultations in five Australian GP training providers. Trainees record patient demographics, consultation details, problems managed, management practices and educational factors from sixty consecutive consultations per six-month training term. Trainees receive a detailed feedback report comparing individual data to aggregated trainee data and national GP data. Results: The patient encounter system provides multiple opportunities for reflective learning across a number of domains of exposure and practice. Reflection can occur during completion of the encounter form; as self-reflection on the feedback report; as facilitated reflection with the GP trainer and medical educator; and as part of integration of data into teaching. We have identified areas for further development, including enhancing the reflective skills of trainees and trainers. Conclusion: The ReCEnT patient encounter program provides a rich platform for reflective learning for vocational trainees and supports development of skills in lifelong learning.

General practice trainees’ clinical experience of dermatology indicates a need for improved education: A cross-sectional analysis from the Registrar Clinical Encounters in Training Study

Skin conditions are commonly encountered in general practice but dermatology is underrepresented in undergraduate medical courses. Australian and international studies have shown that the dermatological diagnostic ability of general practitioners (GPs) is suboptimal, contributing to increased dermatology outpatient referrals. Dermatological experience in GP vocational training is thus of particular importance. We aimed to document the prevalence of skin disease presentations and the range of skin diseases encountered by GP trainees. We also sought to establish associations of GP trainees skin disease experience, including their personal characteristics, consultation factors, and the actions arising from the consultation.