Jeremy Bunker is Director of Training at SIGPET. He also practices as a GP in Fairfield and Enmore and is a Director of the Central Sydney Division of General Practice.

Educational Background
"I didn't know what I wanted to do when I left school, but being a music teacher appealed, so I studied music at the Conservatorium for two years before deciding I wanted to do medicine. As I hadn't done much science or maths, I was really worried I wouldn't have the aptitude for medicine, but I worked hard and actually did reasonably well."

Jeremy obtained a first class honours degree in Medicine from the University of New South Wales in 1983. He was awarded the University Medal and also won the Wallace Wurth prize (for general proficiency throughout the course), the Paediatrics Prize and the Occupational Health Prize.

In 1994, Jeremy attained Fellowship of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.

General Practice
"When I left uni, I went through that awkward phase of finding everything interesting - so I kept on changing specialty courses. Eventually I opted for general practice and set up in practice with a university friend - with no training and no experience. We were really struck by how complex it was, and by the number of people who were in some kind of physical or emotional distress, often with no obvious way of relieving it. So for three or four years, I went through quite a bit of experiential learning, which was really good fun. We were terrified of failing financially so we were open 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. Then things settled down a bit and we stopped working Christmas day."

In 1986, Jeremy was a founding partner of the Ultimo Practice, a general medical practice in inner Sydney offering a full range of services appropriate to an urban setting. Over the next 17 years, he combined general practice work at Ultimo with other activities, including medical education for the RACGP and peer review for the Health Care Complaints Commission.

In 1992, Jeremy became a GP supervisor for the RACGP training program, then GPEA. In this capacity, he supervised many registrars for full time six-month terms. Such extensive and lengthy exposure has made him acutely aware of the problems and challenges facing doctors at this stage of their career.

In 2003, Jeremy took up the position of Director of Training at SIGPET and cut back his number of days in Ultimo. In 2004, he finally stopped practicing at Ultimo and now works part-time at the Fairfield Hospital GP Unit.

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Medical Education
"When we first took on registrars at our practice, we really didn't have any idea what being a medical educator was about or what being a supervisor was about, because there was no formal training. I was aware, however, that there was an art to the whole process and was struggling to acquire the skills to manage it.

I think establishing a relationship is probably the most important thing, with all that goes with that. You have to be approachable and create a climate where people can be honest and ask questions. You also have to realise that people have different ranges of skills, so they can be very good at some things and not so good at others. You've got to get the balance between autonomy and support right - and know when one or the other is required.

When you run a practice, there are many things to consider in creating a pleasant working environment. These include paying attention to how the practice works, how you deal with patients, how well you communicate with staff, how various systems, including filing systems and computer systems, work. It 's within this much larger context you are hoping to give a GP registrar a rewarding experience and impart many skills beyond the clinical."

For over a decade, Jeremy has been involved in delivering various aspects of the workshop program, ranging from three-day workshops for all Basic or Advanced Registrars within NSW, to half-day release workshops for regionally based registrars, to evening lectures.

Jeremy has also recruited, co-ordinated and trained GP supervisors and external clinical teachers. The latter are experienced general practitioners who visit registrars in their practices, observe, and give feedback about consultations.

GP registrars
" I think GP registrars need to have a genuine liking of people, and by that I mean take people as they are - without being too judgemental. That's really hard, and I was very judgemental in my early career at the practice. I think if you appreciate how interesting people are, and how diverse their life experiences are, it makes it much easier to understand why people are the way they are at particular moments in time. Of course, as well as learning to tolerate others, you need to learn to tolerate yourself too."

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SIGPET
" I think SIGPET's greatest assets are our teaching practices and our really stable group of committed supervisors who offer a wide variety of training experiences. Our registrars can be exposed to different practice styles and thoughtful supervisors who are enormously impressive GPs. They also tend to be proactive, forward-thinkers, running very well-organised practices which incorporate many of the ways general practice is going to have to change to survive as a viable model of care and practice.

We're also helped by the fact that we've got a talented group of registrars who are going to shine professionally - and I think anyone who's working within that cohort is going to be stimulated and challenged.

In addition, we're very well placed to take advantaged of our teaching environment. We've got such a terrific geographic exposure and networks with wonderful people, such as staff in the teaching programs at the University of Sydney and Royal Prince Alfred Hospital clinical school. There seems to be a critical mass of people who exhibit considerable goodwill towards the training program and that includes the supervisors, the Board, the staff."

Jeremy has been Director of Training at SIGPET since early 2003. In addition to monitoring the overall direction of the training program, he supervises some registrars, trains and co-ordinates GP Supervisors and runs Clinical Teacher Training Workshops in collaboration with the University of Sydney and the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. The workshop is accredited as part of the Masters Degree in Medical Education delivered by the University of Sydney's Office of Teaching and Learning in Medicine.

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