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WiseGP

LEAD RESEARCHERS

Annabelle Machin

Dr Annabelle Machin

GP Portfolio Fellow

Professor Joanne Reeve

Professor Joanne Reeve

Professor of Primary Care Research

TIME FRAME

Autumn 2017 - ongoing

FUNDED BY

Why this research is needed

We won’t address our workforce crisis by just doing more of the same. Expanding both existing training programmes and recruitment and retention schemes with the same offer won’t work, because it is the job itself that is contributing to the crisis.1 We urgently need to reform the job of general practice.

GPs are consulting more patients with multiple health conditions, who frequently face wider challenges in their work, home and social lives. To help patients presenting with complex problems, GPs often have to work beyond guidelines, to create and tailor management plans to individuals. GPs need support to manage the uncertainty and complexity they face in everyday practice.

WiseGP was established to highlight this complex work and to develop resources to help GPs to build on their problem-solving skills. WiseGP aims to introduce a new model of practice that provides GPs with the time and headspace for complex problem-solving, regular opportunities for discussion of cases with colleagues to share difficult decisions made and support for implementation of changes by GPs to improve the working environment and care delivered.

1 BJGP Life - Reclaiming general practice: tackling our workforce crisis with WiseGP

What we are doing

Informed by research highlighting factors that impact on workforce motivation,1 WiseGP is working to address gaps in training that contribute to poor retention of GPs in practice.

Work has been piloted to implement the WiseGP principles in everyday practice. This includes:

  • WiseGP resources - On the WiseGP website, resources include a GEM library, containing headline messages from the latest research relevant to GPs and ideas for implementation, a newsletter highlighting challenges faced in general practice and how a WiseGP approach could help to address them, animations explaining the complex work of WiseGPs, stories from everday practice to inspire and support implementation of WiseGP principles, blog posts and a podcast.

  • The WISDOM course- Funded by NHS England, WISDOM supports clinicians to develop the professional skills and confidence required in modern general practice to deliver expert whole person-centred (generalist) care.

  • Lazarus - A series of online workshops bought together mid-career GPs to develop solutions to complex problems faced in everyday practice. 2

  • RCGP conference session, October 2023, Glasgow - We discussed tools for implementing changes in practice, with involvement in future WiseGP workshops offered. 3

1 Understanding the impact of professional motivation on the workforce crisis in medicine: a rapid review. Efioanwan Andah, Blessing Essang, Charlotte Friend, Sarah Greenley, Kathryn Harvey, Maria Spears and Joanne Reeve BJGP Open 2021; 5 (2): BJGPO.2021.0005. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/BJGPO.2021.0005

2 Lazarus: working together to reclaim general practice. Annabelle Machin, James Bennett and Joanne ReeveBritish Journal of General Practice 2023; 73 (734): 410-411. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp23X734817

3 Time for change - WiseGP

What we found so far

GPs have commended how WiseGP principles such as knowledge work (complex problem-solving) skills, have helped to capture the complexity of their everyday work as expert generalists.

WiseGP website resources are being regularly accessed by people from around the globe, while subscribers to the monthly newsletter have continued to grow, suggesting content is of interest and value to GPs.

Participants in the WISDOM course found shared learning through an online community particularly helpful. They described how the course enabling them to overcome barriers to the delivery of tailored whole-person centred care.

GPs who participated in Lazarus workshops were enthusiastic about potential opportunities to be involved in shaping the service they delivered and felt that workshops would provide a key space to develop a community of practice. Participants felt future involvement in Lazarus-style workshops would help to re-energise and retain GPs in practice.

Following a session at the RCGP conference, GPs have expressed interest in working with us through future workshops.

Having established that our new ways of working have the potential to motivate and retain GPs and that GPs are enthusiastic about working with us, we now need to scale and sustain the work of WiseGP.

Outputs

Hull York Medical School - WiseGP: A new vision for general practice

Lazarus: working together to reclaim general practice. Annabelle Machin, James Bennett and Joanne ReeveBritish Journal of General Practice 2023; 73 (734): 410-411. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp23X734817

Future doctors as knowledge workers. Annabelle Machin, Joanne Reeve, Emily Lyness and Johanna Reilly. British Journal of General Practice 2022; 72 (715): 73. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp22X718397

What is Wise GP? The intellectual and scholarly challenge of general practice. Johanna Reilly, Joanne Reeve, Annabelle Machin and Emily Lyness. British Journal of General Practice 2021; 71 (706): 225. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp21X715853

GPs are far more than gatekeepers. Annabelle Rose Machin. British Journal of General Practice 2023; 73 (729): 167. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp23X732381

Future Learn: WISDOM - Tomorrow’s Doctor, Today: Supporting Today’s Expert Generalist GP 

Contact us

We welcome enquiries about our research, or if you are interested in collaborating, visiting or postgraduate research opportunities with us.

You can also subscribe to the Academy of Primary Care newsletter.