Abstract

Background Primary care telephone consultations are increasingly used for patient triage, reviews and providing clinical information, and are a key postgraduate training component; yet little is known about GP trainees’ preparation for, or experiences and perceptions of them. Aim To understand the experiences, perceptions and training of GP trainees in conducting telephone consultations. Design and Setting A mixed methods study of North Central and East London GP trainees. Methods A cross-sectional electronic survey of trainees was performed with subsequent semi-structured interviews. Survey data were analysed using descriptive statistics, and qualitative data using thematic analysis. Results The survey response was 16% (100/618), and 10 participated in semi-structured interviews. Trainees felt least confident with complicated telephone consulting, and there was a strong positive correlation between the percentage reporting to have received training and their confidence (R2=0.71, p<0.0001). Positive experiences included managing workload and convenience. Negative experiences included complex encounters, communication barriers and absence of examination. Trainees reported that training for telephone consultations needed strengthening, and recently introduced audio-clinical observation tools were useful. Positive correlations were found between the length of out-of-hours (but not in-hours) training and the level of supervision or feedback received for telephone consultations. Conclusion This project has shed light on GP trainees’ current experiences of telephone consultations and the need to enhance future training. Our findings will inform a wider debate amongst various stakeholders and postgraduate learners regarding training for telephone consultations and potentially for other remote technologies.