Are GP supervisors confident they can assess registrar competence and safety, and what methods do they use?

Background: The new Royal Australian College of General Practitioners’ vocational training standards emphasise patient safety and matching the level of supervision to registrar competence.

Methods: All supervisors attending a regional training provider’s annual education workshop were surveyed about their overall confidence in assessing the safety of their registrars’ patients, their registrars’ competence across the five RACGP domains of general practice and supervision methods used.

Results: Of 84 supervisors, 92.8% expressed overall confidence in their ability to assess their registrars’ competence and 10.7% were totally confident. Consultation observation and audit techniques were infrequently used in their assessments.

Discussion: Supervisors reported confidence in their ability to assess their registrars’ competence, suggesting readiness for outcomesbased standards. The low frequency of using supervision methods considered more effective in targeting registrars’ ‘unknown unknowns’ and the reduction in confidence with greater experiences as a supervisor raises concerns about the accuracy of this self-assessment.