Moving the clinical GP placement online in a pandemic: lessons learned

Figures & data

Table of relevant quotes

Acceptability	‘Done as well as I would have expected it to go. I think it was well done under the circumstances’. S7	‘In the circumstances I really don’t think that the programme could have been done much better.’ S5	‘.filled the gap quite reasonably’. GP1
Learning Community	‘for our group at the beginning at least sort of people were more likely to type in the first one or two days and then eventually people felt more comfortable in using their microphones and speaking’ S6	‘ … had that sort of nice group feeling and you did get to know sort of (tutor name) and how it was going to operate. I think the more the more chopping and changing, the more awkward it probably would have been’. S5	‘ … a group or with time you feel a bit more comfortable offering their own ideas and you look more comfortable like no silly questions sort of thing and yeah I think people maybe just do feel a bit more supported amongst a group … ’. T1
Lack of Apprenticeship	‘And just seeing how things work in a hospital or a GP practise, cause you do subliminally pick up a lot from that’. T1	‘It’s just the kind of stuff you learn, just the kind of stuff you pick up automatically, if you’re just sitting in with a GP for and then trying out yourself.’ S1	‘But I think seeing somebody do it, especially if they do it well gives you a sort of template to emulate’. S6
Limited Authenticity	‘I don’t think it it could ever replace being on a GP placement and seeing patients in real life. And actually you know taking histories, practising your skills and things like that.’ S5	‘um I don’t think it was in any way a substitute for a clinical placement in General Practice. I think there were a number of the softer type of issues that we just didn’t, the students just didn’t get any sort of appreciation that – I think it was very clinically … I think it was actually probably too clinically focused in some ways’ GP2	‘It was quite hard to do that with this. I could have no idea whether or not I’d want to go into general practise from this because I feel like you didn’t get to really like see what it is like’. S2
Importance of visual cues/ engagement	“it feels more personable when you can see the person talking at the other end. S5	‘I found having seen someone’s face makes it 10 times easier to talk to them, makes them a lot friendlier than just hearing this unknown faceless voice off the screen’ T2	‘I think not being able to see … the students mostly having their cameras switched off is problematic. I think it is better if you could actually see their faces … it’s hard sometimes hard to know who is engaging how many, what portion are engaging.’ GP2

S = student T = student tutor GP = GP tutor.