Clinical Supervisor Help sheet 

The role  

The overall purpose of the clinical supervisor is to facilitate and support the training of the foundation doctor during their placement in the department. 
 
The main aspects of the role include: 

 

  • Day to day supervision of the foundation doctor 

  • Directly observing the foundation doctor in the workplace 

  • Ensuring the foundation doctor is fully integrated into the work of the team and be given the opportunity to demonstrate their abilities and receive feedback on their portfolio 

  • Ensure the foundation doctor is attending team meeting where possible and appropriate 

  • Provide clear feedback to the foundation doctor on their performance in the placement, highlighting good practice and guiding developments. 

 

The Clinical Supervisor (CS) should meet with the foundation doctor regularly to discuss their performance and any skills that need to be developed.  

As a minimum, meetings should take place at the beginning of the placement and at the end of the placement. There are also mid-placement reviews that can be used to document the trainee’s progress which are especially useful for any trainee who has been identified as requiring extra support. The following framework can help structure your meetings, develop the relationship of supervisor-trainee, and ensure that you have covered the principal aspects of the role.  

Induction Meeting with Trainees   

This first meeting with the trainee should be arranged for the beginning of the placement – ideally in the first 2 weeks. Although it is the trainee’s responsibility to engage with you and set up the meetings, do what you can to make yourself known and meet your trainee as early as you can in the placement.  

 Content  

Getting to know you: 

  • Depending on whether F1 or F2, ask about their experience of medical school and F1.  

  • Do they have any personal, health or domestic issues that are likely to impact on their training? Does anyone else supporting the trainee need to know about these and do any adjustments need to be made?  

  • Is there anything that they are particularly worried about or looking forward to as they start the placement?   

Training needs: 

  • Inform the foundation doctor who will be able to support them during this placement including all senior staff and how to contact them. 

  • What are the main things they are hoping to gain from the placement?  

  • Do they have areas of strength/weakness from F1 or medical school? 

  • Has the trainee thought about the areas of the curriculum they can evidence whilst in this placement? 

  • Discuss opportunities for assessments to complete whilst in the placement. 

  • Discuss any PDP relating to the placement. 

  • If F2, have they signed up to any regional teaching courses during the placement? (Further information on regional teaching can be found in Appendix 1) 

  • If F2, discuss if they are they planning to use their study leave and are they planning to undertake a taster during the placement? 

  • Discuss any audit opportunities they can be involved with whilst in this placement. 

  • Encourage contemporaneous logs in their e-portfolio. 

 

Depending on the content of the meeting, consider whether contact between you and the educational supervisor would be helpful at this stage. Such contact is particularly important with supervisors outside the Trust e.g. in GP, psychiatry, public health posts.  

In practical terms:  

Prior to the first meeting check you have the relevant access to Horus. You will also need to think of any colleagues that would be appropriate members of the Placement Supervision Group (PSG). This group will consist of doctors’ more senior than F2, senior nurses and allied health professionals. The process allows for formal feedback from the members of the PSG which will help the CS give an informed report (CSR) at the end of the placement. The induction form asks for names of the PSG only at this stage and further guidance can be found on Horus   

 

For each trainee -  

  1. Check the trainee has completed a Personal Development Plan (PDP) and discuss it. Is it realistic, do you have ideas about how they could achieve their aims?  

  1. Log the meeting  

Instructions for Horus:  

Enter the Horus website via https://horus.hee.nhs.uk using your username and password  

Under ‘Admin menu’ on the task bar click on ‘Foundation Doctors’ and then select the relevant trainee’s name.  

  1. From the trainee homepage select the orange box with the trainee name and then select PDP from the list 
  2. From the grey task bar click on ‘Forms (start new)’ and under ‘Mandatory forms for each placement’ you will find the form ‘Induction meeting with CS’ 

 End of Placement Review Meeting with Trainees  

 For each trainee –  

  1. Ahead of the meeting, set up the Placement Supervision Group (PSG). All trainees must have at least one PSG across the year, but it would be good practice to complete a PSG during each placement.  
  2. Before the meeting you will also need to check any concerns that have been raised about the trainee through the assessments – you may need to discuss any concerns with the trainee’s educational supervisor.  
  3. Discuss the trainee’s development during the placement. 
  4. Has the trainee had any days absent from the post – has this been recorded? 
  5. Discuss any reflective practice or PDP entries that the trainee has recorded. 
  6. Check the trainee has linked some evidence to the Foundation Curriculum.* 
  7. Log the meeting 
  8. Flag up any issues resulting from the above checks for referral to the Educational Supervisor if necessary  

Instructions for Horus:  

  1. From the trainee homepage select the orange box with the trainee’s name. Select concerns, which will then bring up any concerns raised about the trainee. if you are able to please review and resolve the concerns. Click on the view/update button to make comments and resolve the concern if appropriate. If you are unable to resolve the concern you must escalate this to the Education Supervisor. 
  2. From the trainee homepage select the orange box with the trainee’s name. Select contents and you will then see what the trainee has completed in the placement. 
  3. From the trainee homepage select the orange box with the trainee name. Select Placement Supervision Group. On the next page select the orange box ‘Manage Feedback’. This will take you to another page where you can view the individual responses and create a summary. Further guidance on this process can be found on Horus. 
  4. From the trainee homepage select the orange box and the PDP or Reflection to view the PDP and reflective entries that the trainee will share with you.  
  5. From the trainee homepage select the orange box and then select’ Curriculum’ to check what evidence they have used to support the curriculum * 
  6. From the taskbar click on ‘Forms (start new)’ and under ‘At the end of each placement’ select the form ‘CS end of placement report’.  

*NB. The Curriculum section within a trainee’s portfolio details all capabilities a trainee must evidence at the end of the year to be signed off. Types of evidence include SLEs, assessments, reflective accounts, etc. The trainee should be linking a range of evidence to the curriculum throughout the year. There is no set requirement of how many pieces of evidence should be mapped to each capability, but it should not exceed 5. Each portfolio item can be mapped to a maximum of 3 capabilities.  

 End May/Beginning June Meeting   

The trainees are required to submit their portfolios for ARCP during the first week of June so in the 3rd placement the clinical supervisor report must be completed by the end of May. Dr Sarah Rawlinson our Head of School requests that if you are in anyway uncomfortable with doing this (e.g., due to lack of time to observe the trainee/early concerns) you should advise the trainee that you are unable to complete the report at that time. You will need to inform the trainee this may initially result in them receiving an outcome 5 and ask them to advise their TPD at the trust.    

 

Appendix 1  

Study Leave  

  • F2s have a total of 30 study leave days over 12 months. A number of days are pre-allocated. Please refer to the Foundation School Study Leave Policy   

  • F1 study leave is all allocated to the weekly foundation teaching.  

  • Ensure you are familiar with the study leave policy and follow this when booking study leave for regional teaching and other courses  

  • All approved study leave must be recorded on the study leave record document attached, so that a cumulative record of the number of days taken can be kept. You will be required to include this in your ARCP evidence documentation  

  • Below is a summary of how some of the study leave is pre-allocated as set out in the school policy:   

Summary table for use of F2 study leave time   

Use of total study leave time   

5 days teaching: minimum 4 days from regional teaching programme plus additional 6 hours foundation teaching (30 hours total)   

1 day simulation training (may be delivered in 2 half days)   

5 days Tasters (which can be taken in F1 for Taster and/or 1 day career planning)   

GP learning sets (5 days)   

ALS (2 days)   

   

This means trainees not doing GP will have 17 days’ available study leave and those doing GP will have 12. 

 

Record of teaching hours  

  • ALL teaching attended must be recorded in the personal learning log found in your Horus ePortfolio  

  • You should record all types of teaching that you wish to count to the total: regional days, local foundation teaching, departmental teaching, and eLearning modules  

  • For all teaching that cannot be verified easily by the postgraduate team, you are required to evidence your attendance by completing an additional achievement form in your portfolio; Course / seminar / other learning attended.  

 

The requirement for successful outcome at ARCP  

The requirements for progression at ARCP are set nationally and agreed by the GMC. They may vary (e.g. due to COVID) but each year they will be confirmed by the foundation school and an annual checklist will be sent to you. The expectation for ARCP June 2022 is: 

  • Minimum total accrued teaching of 60 hours (you can do more!)  

  • Minimum of 30 hours CORE teaching from the foundation-specific programme (local trust foundation teaching and regional programme, foundation simulation)  

  • All other types of teaching is NON-CORE: department teaching, GP learning sets, grand round, eLearning etc  

  • F2 minimum 4 days’ attendance from regional teaching programme (24 hours)  

  • Maximum 6 modules of eLearning (6 hours)  

 

This page was last updated July 13th 2021 (3 years ago)