The Howbeck Healthcare GPA Support Course will provide support to General Practice Assistants (GPAs) to complete the GPA Competency Framework and reduce the burden of the GPA training within the practice by providing the majority of the required elements for the competencies during the sessions. This will substantially reduce the need for the self-directed learning time, allowing the GPAs to continue with their role (noting that observations for some elements will need to be undertaken by the mentor and will most often be undertaken in usual practice time).
The course will support the GPA to complete the framework, providing an overview of all the individual elements of the competency framework, the knowledge base required, as well as signposting to additional resources for learning and development.
As part of the course, we will also provide support to the GP/practice mentor, providing templates for ease and clarity of each element and final documentation to be signed on completion of the portfolio.
The framework is structured around 5 key domains and we will host a session focused on each domain, and provide support via a dedicated Facebook closed group/closed member webpage:
- Care (13 capabilities and 37 individual elements)
- Administration (7 capabilities and 31 individual elements)
- Clinical (22 capabilities and 113 individual elements)
- Communications (9 capabilities and 49 individual elements)
- Managing Health Records (7 capabilities and 26 individual elements)
How much time will participation involve?
The course will run over six months, with one online session a month-each focussed on a specific domain of the framework. Each online session is 1.5 hours.
Content of the sessions will include:
| Session 1– Administration | Session 2 – Care | Session 3 – Clinical |
| Understanding
Implementation Access Familiarisation Support
|
Person Centred Care
Care Plans Infection Control Mental Health and Well-Being |
Background, Policies and Procedures
Blood Samples Other Clinical Procedures |
| Session 4 – Communications
Consultations Enquiries Participation Patient Choice Resources |
Session 5 – Managing Health Records | Session 6 – Portfolio/Re-Cap Session |
| Utilisation
Summarisation Recording Harvesting Understanding Obtaining Navigating |
Review of all elements
Signposting to further resources Templates for sign off |
What are the benefits of taking part?
- Templates will be provided for the participants to evidence their learning and completion of each element of the framework.
- A closed members group will be available for delegates to join where all resources will be shared and peer to peer support can be accessed. This will be a forum to signpost to further resources, share links and a space where participants can ask any questions relating to the domains and the completion of the framework.
- The course will provide support to the practice mentor by providing them with an overview (via the GPA) of the individual elements that require observation/to be signed off, along with templates to support this.
- A final completion certificate will be provided once all elements have successfully been completed.
- Participants will need to attend each of the six sessions in order to complete the course.
Contact us for more information!
