Study protocol for the Collaborative Registrar Education and Training Enhancement (CREATE) project: a mixed-methods participatory study to co-design, implement and evaluate innovations to optimise GP training.

INTRODUCTION

General practice training in Australia is underpinned by early hospital attachments. These experiences are fundamental to the development of clinical and professional skills. However, reduced working hours of junior medical staff and limited opportunities for generalist supervision have raised concerns about the relevance of early training experiences in preparing doctors for careers in primary care. The Collaborative Registrar Education and Training Enhancement (CREATE) project aims to co-design and evaluate innovations that strengthen the educational value of hospital-based training for doctors intending to pursue a career in general practice.

METHODS AND ANALYSIS: CREATE will use a mixed-methods participatory action research design, informed by realist evidence synthesis. Set in Eastern Melbourne in a single hospital health service, CREATE has three phases: (i) a realist scoping review of innovations to improve the primary care appropriateness of hospital-based training; (ii) stakeholder engagement and co-design process involving individual interviews and collaborative workshops; (iii) the prioritisation of contextually relevant educational strategies to enhance the preparation of junior doctors within the hospital health service and produce a framework for future scalability and sustainability. This study is novel in integrating participatory co-design with theory-informed evaluation to address a recognised gap in hospital-based general practice training.

ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethics approval has been granted from Monash University Human Research Ethics Committees (HREC) (Project ID: 42443) and the Eastern Health HREC (Project ID: 113892). Findings will be disseminated through conferences and peer-reviewed publications.