Making learning e-asy

The College’s Online Learning Environment currently has over 140,000 registered users, with access to its suite of more than 100 eLearning modules, and the full range of Essential Knowledge Updates (EKU) resources.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the eLearning team was busier than ever. New guidance came thick and fast and was rapidly converted into short, easy to digest modules with the busy GP in mind. At one point, the ‘top tips’ document was being updated daily after the government briefing and occasionally, twice in a single day as things moved quickly. The COVID-19 Resource Hub has now been accessed more than one million times and is regularly updated to keep up with changing topics, such as vaccinations and post-COVID syndrome.

Dr Toni Hazell is one of the College’s two eLearning development Fellows. It is their role to review eLearning modules once an initial draft has been written by the author – usually a GP with an interest in a topic. “I review the module and oversee two rounds of peer review, where it is seen by a panel including at least one GP and a specialist in the area.”

Dr Toni Hazell

“Modules use the most up-to-date information at the time, and we review them every three years as standard, but also on an ad-hoc basis to account for new guidance or research.”

The EKU part of the programme is funded in-house with updates based on new and practice-changing information from a diverse range of references and guidelines of direct relevance to busy GPs. Each one includes the latest clinical topics, with the September 2021 edition covering chronic pain, atrial fibrillation, otitis externa and thyroid problems. “It’s literally anything that could be clinically relevant to general practice,” explains Dr Thomas Round, Clinical Lead for EKU.

The core modules, published three times a year, are supplemented with Challenges (EKCs), podcasts, screencasts, and twice-monthly ‘Hot Topics’ highlighting the most clinically relevant and practice- changing papers.

“We try to take the information overload away from GPs,” says Thomas. EKU presentations are also available for download and local adaptation including for RCGP Faculty workshops, within individual practices, or in study groups.

Some of the eLearning resources rely on external funding from sponsors who want to raise awareness of a certain topic, but Toni is clear that the RCGP holds complete editorial control. “It isn’t an issue. Sponsors have the same aim as we do – to educate GPs – and they respect the fact that as GPs, we know what is important and practical in primary care. It’s very rare not to reach an agreement as we are all professionals with the interests of GPs in mind. My overriding interest is in making sure a course is relevant for primary care, where we start from the point of a symptom, rather than a diagnosis, so our perspective can be different from that of secondary care,” explains Toni, a GP in Tottenham.

GPs can use eLearning in their appraisal. Currently there is no need to record CPD in the appraisal portfolio, but this may change from April 2022. Toni’s advice is to ‘record the actual amount of time that you have taken to do a module and implement any change, even if this is more than the suggested CPD credits for the module.’

For Thomas, who practises in East London and is an academic GP at King’s College London, it was a summary of the NICE two-week wait referral guidelines that has been an interesting topic he’s worked on. “It was one of the most complicated, extensive NICE guidelines ever produced, and we really had to think about how to summarise that.”

Dr Thomas Round (right)

Grainge photography

Toni says she finds rare disease modules ‘particularly fascinating’ but that they hold the risk of her ‘suspecting every patient I see of having something that in reality I will only see once in my career!’

Both Thomas and Toni agree that the biggest challenge of the job is cutting through a ‘conflicting evidence base or disagreement between subject experts’. But Toni says that ‘these situations are rare and can generally be resolved’.

Both also agree that eLearning can be highly convenient: “You can do eLearning on your mobile on the train or in your pyjamas after the kids are in bed, if you want to. Our ‘Five Minutes to Change Your Practice’ modules and podcasts are specifically designed with the busy GP in mind,” says Toni.

Thomas says, “It doesn’t replace face to face learning, but complements it. We have bite-sized learning with a menu of options and topics for people to try to suit their learning needs.”