GP supervisors as clinicians and educators: Developing and maintaining multiple professional identities

General Practice (GP) supervisors play a critical role in GP training. If we wish to engage, retain and support GPs in this role, it is important to better understand the experiences and needs of our current GP supervisor workforce. The primary goal of this project is to explore the experiences of GP supervisors at different stages of supervisor professional development so that training programs can provide appropriate and effective support. We will focus on identifying specific factors that facilitate or impede their professional development as supervisors.

A secondary goal is to build on our current research on the development of professional identity of new GP supervisors. The proposed project will extend beyond new GP supervisors transitioning into their role, to supervisors at later stages of professional development, enabling access to a full trajectory of supervisor development. We will continue to draw on models of professional identity formation and socio-cultural learning theories; particularly communities of practice.