What should go in Leadership?

The following article refers to the Leadership Activity log template for ST3 GP trainees. For more information about the Leadership Workplace Based Assessment (WPBA), please visit the RCGP website.

Leadership skills are an essential component to the everyday work of a GP. This is reflected in the RCGP Curriculum and Topic Guides and GMC Generic Professional Capabilities. Good leadership skills enable improvement of health outcomes, high quality patient care and fulfilling work environments for staff, by inspiring and empowering all who journey towards a shared vision. Leadership is a skill that everybody can learn and requires continuous development and refinement. Whilst there are aspects of theory to learn, the most important learning in leadership is from practicing the skill set. The Leadership Workplace Based Assessment (WPBA) gives all trainees the opportunity to gain practical experience in developing these skills in primary care.

A Leadership Activity will be undertaken in ST3. You can propose your own activity or select from the examples in the Leadership WPBA Manual. In all cases the proposed activity should be discussed and agreed with your Educational or Clinical supervisor to ensure its suitability. The activity will be recorded in your Portfolio by writing a reflective entry using the specific leadership log entry template.

This is a new reflective log entry to enable reflection on learning in relation to leadership, management and service delivery changes. It has been created to ensure the Trainee has an opportunity to reflect on their experience of the identified leadership qualities within the non-clinical log entry. The non-clinical work a GP is required to do is increasingly complex, within an increasingly diverse clinical workforce.

This new log entry enables appropriate documentation of experiences and reflection:

Trainees are encouraged to record activities such as chairing a meeting, giving a presentation, or Fresh Pair of Eyes exercises. It should be noted that transferability of leadership skills should be illustrated, and that the Trainee may want to use the entries to demonstrate engagement with the concept of leadership.

The NHS Leadership Academy suggests Leadership in the health and care services is about delivering high quality services to patients by: demonstrating personal qualities, working with others, managing services, improving services, setting direction, creating the vision, and delivering the strategy.

Delivering the Service is the core of the leadership model.

Example learning logs

You can find worked examples of log entries on the RCGP website.