Upping the game? Attitudes towards combining a GP trainer course with a Postgraduate Certificate in Medical Education in Wessex, UK.

This paper presents an evaluation of attitudes towards a new PGCME for GP trainers in Wessex, UK, introduced in 2010. The course links the pre-existing experiential GP trainer course with an academic component validated by the University of Winchester (UoW). Data were collected through interviews with GP trainers who had completed the certificate, as well as the tutors who facilitate the trainer courses, and a thematic analysis of assignments submitted by the GP trainers. This evaluation suggests that the PGCME took time to become embedded in the GP trainer course but gradually gained acceptance by course tutors, though there was ambivalence about whether it should be mandatory or not. Both tutor group members and GP trainers expressed the view that the PGCME gave new opportunities for development as educators, and the assignments considered a broad range of topics in GP training. The impact of academic credentialing on GP trainer development is considered further.