Frequently Asked Questions

1. Teaching

What are the benefits of becoming a tutor / teaching practice?

There is a huge array of benefits to teaching in your practice including but not limited to: inspiring the next generation of medical students, maintaining up-to-date clinical knowledge and practice, becoming part of our teaching community, preventing burnout, improving morale amongst your practice staff and financial remuneration.

 As one of our GP tutors phrased it ‘The opportunities are to enthuse and inspire students and show them what an amazing career they can have in general practice – how we work closely with multidisciplinary teams and the beauty of knowing your patients and how rewarding that is’.

 

What qualifications do I need to become a GP tutor?

Requirements for new tutors/practices

 

What does teaching a GP placement involve?

There are a number of different placements that vary in their time and student commitments so you can choose one to suit you. Please see our Teaching Opportunities for GPs website for more information

 

What training do you offer?

We provide educational days for our GP tutors three times per year with each academic term. We encourage you to attend at least one and ideally all three! See our website for details of the next training event

QMUL also offers a number of formal courses in medical education. These include a two day Introduction to Teaching in Primary Care (ITTPC), a one year part-time Certificate in Learning and Teaching (CILT), and a three year part-time Masters in Education for Clinical Contexts

 

My practice is outside of London, can we still teach?

Yes, in year 5 students can choose to be placed at an outer London practice for their 6 week placement (or half of their placement time).  Depending on your practice location, we may also be able to allocate year 3 students.  In the third year a number of students will be placed at ‘outer’ Trusts with accommodation provided at the Trust site.  We place these students in practices located near these sites.

 

How do I / how does my practice, apply to teach?

If you are interesting in becoming an Undergraduate teaching practice, please contact our CBME Manager Lynne Magorrian – l.c.magorrian@qmul.ac.uk / 0207 882 2521 or Deputy Manager Kate Scurr – k.j.scurr@qmul.ac.uk / 0207 882 2523

 

What does the practice need to do to prepare for student placements

Please see our Requirements for New Tutors/Practices

 

I am a locum/salaried GP, can I still teach?

Yes.  If you are a sessional GP who would like to become involved in teaching, for example if you work in several different practices, or your practice does not want to become a teaching practice you can become a sessional GP Tutor.  This route is open to all sessional GPs whether you are a locum or a salaried GP.  This scheme matches sessional GPs (SGPs) with established teaching practices (host practices) and a host practice mentor. The host practice provides the space and suitable patients, and the SGP organises the teaching.  More information can be found in our Sessional GP handbook. Please contact our CBME manager Lynne Magorrian for more information – l.c.magorrian@qmul.ac.uk / 0207 882 2521

You can also become involved with clinical skills teaching based at the medical school campus at Barts or become an OSCE examiner. Please contact CBME deputy manager Kate Scurr for more information – k.j.scurr@qmul.ac.uk / 0207 882 2523

 

Can students self-organise their Year 5 Community Care placement at my practice?

If you are a contracted teaching practice then students cannot self-organise at your practice.   

 

Who do I contact if I would like to become an OSCE examiner?

If you are interested in volunteering to be an examiner then please contact the Assessment Unit at ihse-osce-examiners@qmul.ac.uk

 

How do I complete the student assessments?

You will be asked by the relevant Unit Administrator to complete an online assessment and professionalism form for each student.  Further information on assessment and grading criteria can be found in the tutor guides

 

What should I do if a student is absent/missing?

As part of the online assessment and professionalism form, you will be also asked to log which days your students were present/absent.

If a student does not attend on the first day of the placement please let us know as soon as possible so that we can follow this up. Please also let us know if there are any ongoing attendance problems or unexplained absences.  It is important to notify us of any attendance issues, so that the School can follow this up as part of our duty of care to the students.   Further details can be found in the

Policy for Student Attendance

 

What should I do if I have a concern regarding a student?

In the first instance, please contact the relevant Unit Administrator or Unit Convenor. It is better to contact us as early as you identify concerns so that we can address issues through student support before they escalate. This document gives you information about how student support works and what they can offer.

 

How do I know what to teach the students?

Each unit has its own tutor guide which should help you to plan your student placements. We also recommend that you have a look at our Continued Professional Development and Educational Resources section on our website if you are stuck for inspiration. Please also see the medical school curriculum for guidance.

2. Finance

How much will I be paid for teaching?

This depends on the unit that you teach and the number of students. Please refer to the Current Payment Rates

 

What is GP Tariff?

GP Tariff is the NHS levy, which funds undergraduate teaching

 

Why does the number of sessions credited for the unit I am teaching not seem to correspond with the length of time the student(s) were in the practice?

A session is half a day (three-and-a-half hours). The number of sessions credited for each unit depends on the amount your clinical service is reduced by the teaching. A full morning or afternoon tutorial with a group of students is a 100% session. This is because you are unable to do your surgery (a100% reduction in clinical service). If a student sits in on your surgery, and you are consequently unable to see the normal number of patients, or if s/he is with another member of the practice team, under your supervision, your clinical service is reduced by one quarter, and you are credited 25% of a session.

 

At the end of the teaching, what do I need to do to get paid?

The completion of the online student assessment will prompt payment. That's all. The GP Tutor should award each student an overall assessment after consultation with the appropriate teachers, including members of practice staff who have been in close contact with a student.  The completion of the assessment should be done with the student present.

 

Why can't the money be paid directly to me instead of into my practice's account?

Because the money you receive is intended for the loss of service time to your practice due to teaching.

 

How quickly will I receive payment?

Within 4-6 weeks of completing the online student assessment form

 

Who should I contact if I have any queries regarding payments?

Mohammed Miah on 0207 882 8980 or m.f.miah@qmul.ac.uk

 

Our practice does a lot of teaching, which means that our teaching-related costs are significant; can we receive additional money for this?

Yes, the practice facilities payments increases in accordance with the number of session you teach. Please refer Current Payment Rates.  The facilities money is to cover such things as practice infrastructure costs (heating, lighting, cleaning, equipment insurance, TV licence), the costs of maintaining and replacing the ULP equipment, staff administration time, consumables and GP protected time for training and preparation.

 

How often will we be paid our practice facilities money?

At the end of every quarter, although we pay quarters 1 and 2 together in September.  Quarter 3 in December and the final payment in March.  Please note these payments can only be authorised once you return your signed Service Level Agreement (SLA).

 

How will we know if a payment has been made?

The practice will receive a remittance advice following each payment.

3. Quality Assurance

What is Quality Assurance (QA)?

Quality Assurance is the process by which we as a medical school ensure that high standards and good practice in education are recognised and rewarded, and that problems or challenges are rapidly identified and addressed.

 

How do you measure and monitor QA?

All practices are visited before they start teaching to assess accessibility for students, readiness for teaching and to identify any support to help that we can offer. See here for our expectations for teaching GPs and practices along with the forms that we use for new practice visits. We also contact or visit practices if an issue is flagged up through, for example, student feedback.

We collect student feedback after each placement and GP tutor annually and use this to recognise good practice and guide our GP tutor development programme. We also review GP practice attendance at tutor training days.

 

How do I receive student feedback?

Students complete on-line feedback for each placement.  You will be sent an email from the QA team informing that you have feedback to view.  Once you are set up on JISC (previously BOS), you will be able to view and/or export all student feedback relevant to your practice teaching.

 

What is in the student feedback form?

See here for the core questions that student are asked to evaluate.

 

How do I facilitate the student feedback process?

During the time that you spend feeding back to each individual student, the other students should be asked to complete their online feedback.

 

How do I get a login for JISC (previously BOS) so that I can view my student feedback?

The QA team will contact you and ask you to nominate a person in the practice to be set up.  The nominated person will receive an email from JISC with instructions of how to set up an account.

 

Can we have multiple logins for JISC?

No, there can only be one login per practice.

 

When I login, I cannot view my feedback?

Ensure you have unticked ‘Just my surveys’ (top right of the screen). 

 

Who do I contact if I have trouble logging on or viewing my feedback?

QA Administrators Ms Lucy Power l.power@qmul.ac.uk or Mariyam Begum mariyam.begum@qmul.ac.uk