![]() The term ‘clinical supervision’ can be interpreted in several ways, and it is often done so differently by different professional bodies. There is a need to establish guidance around clinical supervision offered by employers, who may also be new to PAs themselves and juggling recruitment or management of these additional roles as part of a strategy to handle the increased clinical workload due to COVID-19. These issues, in addition to the need to continuously ensure patient safety, have motivated us to investigate this and rapidly initiate a starting point in clinical literature around the breadth of considerations within PA supervision. ![]() In our experience locally and regionally, a lack of clear guidance has led to differences in clinical supervision of primary care PAs, which can lead to PA dissatisfaction, and, in one instance known to us, a preceptee’s failure. Unlike the rest of the medical workforce, PAs are uniquely able to move between primary and secondary care, which, in the future, may lead to retention issues if working in primary care leads to dissatisfaction. ![]() ![]() As with any healthcare professional, the first few years are vital in shaping them clinically, in addition to shaping their views of a career in primary care. 1,2 There is a steep learning trajectory for PAs from being a postgraduate student for 2 years to then assessing undifferentiated patients with some degree of autonomy and responsibility. Physician associates (PAs) remain relatively new entrants in the healthcare workforce but numbers are steadily increasing, especially with strategies to incentivise this further (for example, the recent Direct Enhanced Service (DES) contract for Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme). This accompanies an induction into the practice and general clinical support that is initially more intensive but otherwise remains available when the PA feels it is required. These recommendations include, but are not limited to, a discussion at the onset of PA employment of mutual needs and a specified supervisory schedule, alongside named clinicians who generally address clinical and pastoral components periodically. The paper seeks to rapidly initiate a starting point in clinical literature around the breadth of considerations within PA supervision. Qualitative feedback from a cohort of primary care PAs in Sheffield alongside the authors’ own expertise have been collated to produce recommendations to supplement existing documentation from the Faculty of Physician Associates. There is a need for clinical supervisors to be aware of what their responsibilities are when employing and supervising a PA. This seems especially pertinent amid the recent funding initiatives that encourage employment of PAs to aid the increasing demands in primary care, especially with the added stressors of the COVID-19 pandemic. Triage and consultation models and templates are configurable to support the practice’s preferred workflow structure, subject to appropriate clinical governance.The physician associate (PA) role is gaining momentum as a healthcare professional who supports medical workload in primary care, yet there is a lack of clinical literature around how best to clinically supervise this new role. The askmyGP dashboard helps practices prioritise their caseload, regardless of source, including clinical priority flags. 20% of patients search on self-care but no patients are turned away. 62% of patient requests are resolved by secure message or telephone. Practices using askmyGP receive an average 63% of demand online. Patients explain their symptoms in their own words, allowing structured triage and consultation information to be passed directly to the practice. The clinicians at the practice use the askmyGP online triage tools to prioritise and deliver care by secure message, telephone, video or face-to-face appointment.Īll patients or their carers can use askmyGP to contact their practice, in most cases via a link from the practice website. The doctor-patient relationship lies at the heart of askmyGP, which keeps patients in touch with their registered GP practice. AskmyGP offers an online consultation and workflow system combined with change interventions and has been helping GPs to manage their patient caseload since 2011.
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