Annual GP Tutors Conference 2025: Coming together in connected practice

Photo credit: Cat Cross  

Professor Sir Aziz Sheikh discussed some of the international challenges in primary care which NDPCHS are tackling. Professor Caroline Swales provided updates from the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, particularly in relation to the Curriculum and the Medical Licensing Assessment (MLA). Professor Sophie Park linked this altogether by describing some of the initiatives across primary care placement provision and Academic Primary Care supporting student engagement about Generalism across both experiential learning and relevant scholarship. She highlighted the recent winner of the Martin Lawrence student award, NIHR School of Primary Care Research (SPCR) student internships and recent 'Career Pathways to Academic Primary Care' event. 

This was followed by the first keynote talk - delivered by Professor Louise Younie on ‘Flourishing Spaces in Primary Care Education’. Professor Younie is a GP and Professor of Medical Education at Queen Mary University of London. She provided an expert view on the differences between the terms 'resilience' and 'flourishing', particularly in the context of Primary Care Education and existing theories in the literature. We heard about some of her own experiences of running a Creative Arts SSC (Student-Selected Component) programme for medical students, and how creative enquiry could support important processes of reflection or professional identity formation. Conference participants had the opportunity to make a creative contribution, as Professor Younie encouraged a moment of reflection to consider which aspects of a work environment make us feel most cared for. In a particularly special moment of the day, Professor Younie gathered together the reflections of the whole conference on the topic of flourishing spaces in the form of a poem read aloud on stage. 

Professor Louise Younie delivering her keynote on ‘Flourishing Spaces in Primary Care Education'

Participants were then given the opportunity to attend two of four workshops: 'Social Prescribing', 'Supporting Student Involvement in Quality Improvement', 'Workforce Sustainability' or 'Performing Medicine'.  

Social Prescribing - led by Associate Professor Stephanie Tierney and Thomas Swinburn (DPhil student in Primary Care in the Social Prescribing Group).  

This workshop focused on the role of link workers/social prescribers in Primary Care settings based on recent research findings of Associate Professor Stephanie Tierney. This discussion considered where social prescribers fit into the team – both physically and conceptually, and reflected on variability in practice within the field of social prescribing. The workshop particularly identified the value of link workers in holding or making space for patients in their process of developing readiness for change. 

Supporting Student Involvement in Quality Improvement – led by Dr Agalya Ramanathan (Academic Lead for Pre-clinical Teaching, Years 1-3) and Dr Hannah Fuchs (final year medical student).  

This workshop considered how students can be empowered by their GP tutors to undertake Quality Improvement (QI) projects during their Primary Care placements. The workshop highlighted the opportunity of Sustainable QI (SusQI) projects to connect student and practice learning and development needs. Existing student projects were shared as examples of ways in which student and practice curiosity about ways to improve practice had been embedded into projects, and then used to inform practice innovation and developments. Dr Fuchs shared her own experiences carrying out a QI project on bowel cancer screening, and then tutors had the opportunity to share project ideas and previous experiences relating to each of the four principles of SusQI. 

Workforce Sustainability – led by Eleanor Hoverd, (Research Fellow in Realist Research from the Workforce and Learning Research Group).  

This was an animated interactive session, starting with creating Lego models of a sustainable workforce in underserved communities - which produced a variety of models from a gloomy outlook of unbalanced overreaching towers to optimistic utopias with wellbeing areas. The workshop participants then shared discussion about examples of evidence from current Workforce Voices realist reviews – focusing on the role of receptionists, and the primary-secondary care interface. It was interesting to hear the diversity of views on the main reasons behind the increasing rapidity of workforce turnover.  

Performing Medicine – led by Carly Annable-Coop and Suzy Willson (Expert Facilitators in arts-based approaches in health care, Clod Ensemble).  

This workshop was a practical opportunity to explore a multi-directional model of care and to translate this into physical spaces and activities. These activities encouraged reflection on their own experiences as GP tutors and some of the non-verbal or spatial factors that influence how they care for their patients, for themselves and for their colleagues. 

The afternoon workshops were followed by a prize giving ceremony. This event marked the introduction of the first Kome Gbinigie Prize for Excellence in Clinical Communication by a Medical Student. This prize was created in memory of Dr Kome Gbinigie, a highly respected Clinical Communications Tutor at Oxford. We were honoured to be joined by Kome’s family for the inaugural presentation of this prize, and the entire audience were touched by a moving speech from her father Dr Osahon Gbinigie. This prize was awarded this year to medical student Ayush Sinha.  

Medical Student Ayush Sinha accepting the first Kome Gbinigie Prize for Excellence in Clinical Communication

Further prizes for excellent teaching were awarded to both individual GP tutors, as well as to GP practices in the categories of Pre-Clinical, Clinical and Out of Oxford GP Placements. It was wonderful to hear the excellent student feedback for the tutors and practices who had created such positives experiences and atmospheres for the students in general practice. A full list of the prize-winners is attached here. 

The day was concluded with a second keynote talk by Professor Catherine Pope (Professor of Medical Sociology; Associate Head of Department for People, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion). This talk considered the nuances and complexities of Primary Care access systems based on her work in the 'GP SUS' study. She outlined the dangers of using top-down solutions to enact change in primary care and highlighted the barriers of patient access in a progressively digitalised world. Examples of her board game to demonstrate the enablers and challenges to GP access from her research findings were displayed and enjoyed by GP tutors. She concluded that top-down political frameworks will always struggle to find a one-size-fits-all solution to such varied and dynamic systems.  

We would like to thank all speakers and workshop facilitators for their engaging sessions and insights, as well as to Dr Laura Ingle, Emma Wiley and the Primary Care Medical Education team for organising the event.