The effect of the general practice registrar year on perceived skills in palliative care in the West Midlands

Objectives To ascertain the effect of 12 months spent as a GP registrar on perceived skills in palliative care. Design A previously validated questionnaire for use with medical undergradu ates is modified and used to survey perceived skills in five aspects of pro viding palliative care in five different scenarios at two points during the 12-month period of general practice vocational training where no specific teaching intervention is conducted. Setting The West Midlands. Participants 210 GP registrars. Results Perceived skill ratings were seen to significantly increase during the 12-month period, but anxiety in caring for the dying did not significan tly decrease. Ratings of skills were lowest when caring for a child dying w ith leukaemia or a young adult dying with AIDS. In addition, other importan t variables which had a statistically significant influence were gender and age, but interestingly not the number of previous senior house officer (SH O) posts undertaken or whether the respondent had had formal teaching on th e subject in the past. Conclusions It might therefore be postulated that training as a GP registra r has an important impact on the development of perceived skills in palliat ive care.