GENERAL-PRACTITIONER TRAINEES EXPERIENCE OF UNDERTAKING AUDIT PROJECTS - PRELIMINARY-REPORT FROM THE WEST OF SCOTLAND REGION

Background. Departments of general practice increasingly provide forma l teaching in audit. However, little is known about audit projects car ried out by trainees in general practice. Aim. A study was undertaken to ascertain general practitioner trainees' experience of undertaking an audit project in the trainee year, with reference to their understa nding of audit theory, perceived usefulness of the project in enhancin g clinical knowledge, time taken to do the audit and practice team inv olvement in the project. Method. All 104 trainees in the west of Scotl and region completing their trainee year on 31 July 1993 were sent a p ostal questionnaire that month. The replies to the questionnaire were analysed and compared with the audit project that each trainee had sub mitted in June 1993 as part of a pilot project for summative assessmen t. Results. Responses were received from 103 trainees (99%). Seventy t rainees (68%) felt strongly that their audit project was relevant to p atient care but only 31 (30%) felt strongly that the project was a use ful way of enhancing clinical knowledge of the disease process. Data c ollection was the most time consuming aspect of the audit project, 23% of trainees reporting taking a day or more to complete this stage. Tr ainees who chose their own audit project were more likely to complete two sets of data collection than those who had not chosen their own pr oject. Seventy nine trainees (77%) indicated that trainers had been in volved in their project and 51 trainees indicated that one of the othe r practice partners had been involved in their project. Conclusion. Pe rforming an audit as a trainee is feasible in the time limit of the on e year in general practice. The educational benefit appears to be limi ted to the knowledge of audit process, rather than to clinical knowled ge. Audit projects of relevant size and complexity, involving appropri ate members of the practice team, are to be encouraged, as is the deve lopment of an instrument for assessing trainee audit.