I believe that "Calman" leave can still be claimed to teach on up to 2
postgraduate courses p.a. This is in addition to annual and study /
professional development leave. My Trust has also taken a constructive
approach to reasonable requests for such leave, but most of the time
required is still taken out of our home / family time.

The big barrier to teaching on such things is time. Apart from the days
out for the course, there is a lot of preparation time. Although this is
more at the beginning, it doesn't, or shouldn't, dwindle to zero. In my
experience (learning and instructing), the best teachers tend to be the
busy "hands-on" types (from whatever background). These are likely to be
doing unsocial hours / shifts already.

When home time is so precious, justifying to your family more than the
minimum 2-3 courses per year in your own time can be tricky. When
clinical time is so precious, justifying to your medical director /
manager the time out of clinical sessions can be equally tricky! I
suspect this is probably even more difficult for newly qualified
instructors in the SpR years (young families, exams, disruptive
rotations, unsocial hours etc.)

It is very wasteful 50% of ATLS instructors are dormant, especially when
instructors get desperate requests on a weekly basis to help out on
courses short of faculty.

Surely the "instructor license" lapses without doing the requisite
minimum number of courses per year. I think the Resus council suggests a
minimum of teaching on 2 ALS courses years p.a. and the RCS suggests at
least 1 ATLS p.a. I know from personal experience how difficult it is to
find time to do more than the minimum, especially with heavy resident
shop-floor commitments.

At the other extreme, I have heard of a few colleagues who cause some
ill-feeling amongst their directorates for "always being off on another
jolly course whilst we do all the work". Tricky to get the balance
right.

Demand for ALS/ATLS/PALS/APLS courses and the newer
ILS/APLS/ALERT/CRISPS courses seems higher than ever, so I suppose the
time is worth investing.

Goat


In article <002d01c27297$e8932220$c402e150@DADS>, Ray McGlone
<[log in to unmask]> writes
>    I've been quite vocal at Trust level in support of Staff going to 
>    Instruct on Provider courses for ATLS etc etc. The Trust have 
>    recognised that some of these are not to be counted as official 
>    "study leave".
>     
>    However I also have concerns in the opposite direction. On a recent 
>    ATLS course I was told that up to 50% of ATLS instructors were 
>    dormant. An increasing trend is for staff to get trained up... do a 
>    few courses and then stop. Is it for the CV or merit points I 
>    wonder? Needless to say it is very expensive for the NHS to fund 
>    the training of instructors if their "life expectancy" is so short.
>     
>    So at interviews perhaps we should be also asking... when did you 
>    last instruct on a course?
>     
>    Ray McGlone
>     
>    ATLS Course Director at the Gateway of the Lake District
>     
>    Contact me off list if you would like to instruct here next year.

Dr G Ray
A&E
Sussex
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