Which modality of teaching is most desirable for General Practice speciality trainees?

Dear Editor, Since the COVID-19 pandemic General Practice (GP) trainees in the UK like trainees from other specialities have experienced a number of changes in the format of their formal teaching [1]. One key change experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic by GP trainees has included receiving formal weekly teaching in an online format via platforms such as Zoom and Microsoft (MS) Teams. In more recent months, as the restrictions on social distancing have eased and the education centres have reopened their doors to host educational events, the use of such facilities at teaching hospitals for educational sessions has once again become more feasible. Despite this, there has been a change in the structure of teaching sessions which has been perceived by many as the ‘new normal’ teaching session structure for GPST training schemes with increased mixed teaching structures of both online and some face-to-face teaching sessions compared to the previously weekly face-to-face teaching session style. Sivananthan et al. focused on the structure of internal medicine trainee teaching sessions and suggested that the role of online teaching as a format for such sessions was likely to be utilised in the longer term. However, within GP speciality teaching sessions, we are also observing a shift in the perception of trainees to the degree where some trainees feel that face-to-face teaching is no longer required [2]. At Chelmsford GPST programme, we have consistently garnered trainee feedback on their preference for each teaching modality, which is then examined to successfully inform the subsequent term’s teaching delivery format. The current teaching structure includes three face-to-face sessions for trainees per term and the remaining sessions in an online format via MS Teams. A survey of 58 GP trainees between ST1 and ST3 year were invited to respond to a questionnaire aimed at understanding their preferences for teaching delivery format. Of the 58 trainess, 28 requested that the format remained the same as previous terms, while a staggering 26 out of 58 trainees stated that that they would prefer the entire teaching programme be delivered online via MS Teams. Only 1 out of 58 trainees requested that teaching was reverted back to being a fully face-toface format (as per the pre-COVID format), with only 5 trainees requesting a greater proportion (more than 3 sessions per term) of teaching sessions to be in a face-to-face format. Many studies have identified clear reasons why trainees have preferred online delivery of formal teaching, which have included the ability to attend more sessions, especially when working shifts on hospital rotations, trainees having their own space to interact with teaching at home and an ability to undertake caring responsibilities such as childcare pickups after the session has ended [2]. Never the less, as trainers, we feel that trainees are likely to miss out on a number of factors that face-to-face teaching offers. It is a well-known fact that GPST teaching sessions provide opportunities for peer-topeer learning, pastoral support from GP training programme directors and informal curriculum development and dissemination, which can’t naturally occur without such an educational forum. It would be interesting to ascertain whether this shift in learning culture is consistent with other trainers’ experiences regarding the delivery of online and faceto-face teaching and whether the perceptions of their trainees have been similar to our survey results.