Medical students supporting rural GP research

In this presentation we outline a new research project which aims to support General Practitioners (GPS) in rural settings to undertake practitioner-led research, through two parallel strategies. In the first, we take a hands-on, practical approach, implementing and evaluating a pilot ‘Triangular Support Model’ at one rural practice, which is GP-directed, student-supported, and academically-supervised. In the second strategy, we undertake a broader study by tapping into the experiences and perspectives of GPs at scale, and in depth, so that we can better understand opportunities for building practitioner-led research capacity. Both strategies are led by a rural-stream medical student and supported by a research team.
Both strategies are in their early stages. In this presentation we take the opportunity to outline the approaches, and then to open up the project for your thoughts and guidance. What is important that should we be paying attention to? What do you consider would be useful for your research planning? We welcome your ideas.
The outcomes of the Triangular Support Model pilot will be a small-scale and pragmatic research project that benefits the local clinic/community, and a paper for publication co-authored by the GP, student and academic. The project will also evaluate the support model itself, and this provides a further publication opportunity. The broader study of the second stream aims to also publish its findings. We hope that our findings will support new ways of thinking about and supporting rural GP research.