The Day Release Course (DRC) is a monthly meeting of all GP vocational training scheme hospital trainees. Its content is designed to compliment your in-post experience and to prepare you for the the GP registrar year and beyond. You are expected to attend unless away on annual leave. Your hospitals are aware of this and will have made appropriate cover arrangements where possible.

The Program

Meetings occur on the 3rd Wednesday of the month, 10 months a year. ST1 trainees have a teaching session in the morning and group work in the afternoon. ST2 trainees have their sessions the other way around.

Who Runs the Course?

The Programme Directors for ST1/2, (PDs) Alistair, Andrew and Will run the course with the help of visiting speakers. Speakers are usually local consultants and GPs with special interests in the day’s topic. The Course Organisers (COs - who mostly run the Registrar/ST3 teaching) also assist on the course.

A Typical Session

For the ST1 group, the morning session will normally consist of a talk from the specialist for the first hour or so, followed by work in small groups based around relevant cases. During the afternoon session you will be formed into a learning set facilitated by an experienced GP-the agenda for these learning sets will be developed by the groups learning needs and follow the GP curriculum.

The ST2 group will have their learning set during the morning session and lecture based teaching during the afternoon session.

Lunch

An appetising lunch is provided for ST1 and ST2 trainees together. It’s a good chance to meet up and share experiences, learn about posts you are going into in the future and get to know colleagues from the other hospitals with whom you may be working during the registrar year.

Grumbles

Traditionally, the DRC has been seen as a chance to have a good grumble about the hospital posts. This is absolutely appropriate! Sharing problems with colleagues is a key part of a healthy, happy career. Often solutions arise from such discussions, and if not then just letting off steam can help. It is also useful for the POs to know what is going on with the posts. It is only through your feedback that the POs get to know what the posts are like and where possible can make changes to improve the posts – information gathered here is generally used anonymously and often gathered over a period of time so you are unlikely to be personally identifiable. You can also approach the POs privately if you have specific problems which need help with.