Evaluation of General Practice Nurse Fellowship training programme in Kent & Medway

Evaluation of General Practice Nurse Fellowship training programme in Kent & Medway.

The General Practice Fellowship programme is a national commitment announced in the NHS Long Term Plan. It is a two-year programme of support, available to all newly-qualified GPs and nurses working substantively in general practice, with an explicit focus on working within and across a Primary Care Network (PCN). The programme offers support with PCN portfolio working and learning and development post-registration, supporting nurses and GPs to take up substantive roles, understand the context they are working in and become embedded in the PCN, as well as increase and maintain high levels of participation in the primary care workforce

The approach to investigating impact and implementation of the General Practice Fellowship programme is based on the Kirkpatrick’s model for evaluating training programmes. This is an appropriate approach as, alongside capturing individual impacts, the model considers how context affects training programmes. It facilitates collection of outcomes on four levels:

1. Reactions: How do individuals feel about the fellowship programme/learning experience? How satisfied are they with the programme?
2. Learning: What knowledge of skills have individuals learnt? Have there been changes in attitudes, beliefs, confidence or competence because of the fellowship programme?
3. Behaviour: Implementation of the new skills. What changes in behaviour have occurred because of the fellowship programme?
4. Results: What impacts does the fellowship programme have on the wider system? How does it improve patient and organisational outcomes?

The proposed study will use a mixed-methods approach to capture data on the impact and implementation of the training programme. Quantitative data collected through online surveys and qualitative data from 1-2-1 interviews/focus groups with programme attendees, observations in practice  and interviews with wider stakeholders (i.e. primary care colleagues). The study will be conducted in four Work Packages (WP) over 9 months. We propose two phases of data collection to capture experiences both mid-programme and end of programme to ensure the evaluation reflects learning across all modules. 

Funder/funding stream

Kent & Medway Clinical Commissioning Group

What are the main aims? 

Identify the impact of the training on knowledge, understanding of primary care and their role within it.

Key words

General Practice, workforce training, evaluation of training

Who benefits from the research?

• Individuals who attend training (GPs and GP Nurses)
• Primary care networks
• Patients

What research outputs planned/published?

• Report to Clinical Commissioning Group
• Executive summary for NHSE

What is the expected impact?

Advise on what works well on training and adaptations needed for future iterations