Managing & Supporting the Poorly Performing Doctor

Enhance your ability to help doctors achieve clinical excellence whilst ensuring you handle the experience safely and effectively

Without doubt, one of the most stressful roles a doctor performs is that of managing performance issues with juniors or even colleagues. Despite feeling like a minefield of legal principles, individual sensitivities and clinical governance, using the right approach coupled with effective skills results in rapid attainment or restoration of acceptable clinical standards and a doctor who will be grateful for the rest of their career. This comprehensive course is designed to allow consultants and managers to handle performance issues with confidence and in a supportive manner, ensuring that they are safe and the struggling doctor stands the best possible chance of succeeding.

Content

• What constitutes acceptable versus unacceptable performance
• Passing assessments versus real life clinical performance
• Tell-tale signs of a doctor in trouble
• Ensuring that problems are identified early
• EGOR model for supervising & monitoring junior doctors
• Raising performance issues – communication skills
• Legal principles in poor performance – rights
• Legal principles in poor performance – conducting a safe process
• Managing denial or naivety
• Conducting a performance appraisal when all is not well
• Conducting root cause analysis in performance issues
• Creating a PRP (performance rectification plan)
• Methods & options for restoring or enhancing performance
• What constitutes appropriate support?
• Setting an appropriate monitoring schedule
• Feedback skills when performance issues exist
• Mentoring to restore or augment knowledge and skills acquisition
• Using coaching techniques to help support development
• Fostering self-reliance in meeting learning goals
• Maintaining motivation whilst issues are resolved
• Managing issues identified towards the end of a rotation
• What should you do if performance doesn’t improve?
• Approaching references for doctors where concern exists

Course type and teaching methods

This is a supportive but pragmatic course designed to help consultants and others successfully manage a range of performance issues occuring with junior doctors and senior colleagues. The course consists of an engaging mixture of lectures, discussions, exercises and case studies, the latter being particularly useful in devising the best way forward.