ACPs & PAs: build educator evidence that’s credible, structured, and easy to appraise

Whether you’re an Advanced Clinical Practitioner (ACP) or a Physician Associate (PA), you’re often expected to teach: supporting new starters, coaching junior colleagues, contributing to departmental teaching, and helping keep standards safe and consistent.

The problem is that this teaching can be high-impact but low-evidence, it happens, people benefit, but it doesn’t always translate into a clean portfolio you can use for appraisal, progression, and professional development.

This course helps you turn everyday teaching into structured, verifiable evidence, without adding loads of admin.

At a glance

If you’re an ACP or PA: this course helps you teach with a repeatable structure and document it in a way that’s easier to review and evidence.

What you’ll leave with: a practical teaching framework + feedback tools + concise reflection method so your educator work doesn’t stay invisible.

Why this matters for ACPs and PAs

ACPs: education is part of advanced practice

Advanced practice is commonly described across four pillars, including education (alongside clinical practice, leadership/management, and research). In other words: being able to teach, supervise, and develop others isn’t a “nice extra”, it’s part of what advanced practice looks like on paper.

PAs: regulation is moving expectations toward stronger evidence

Since 13 December 2024, Physician Associates (and Anaesthesia Associates) have been regulated by the GMC, bringing them under GMC standards, guidance, and fitness-to-practise processes. While the GMC finalises the revalidation model and individual revalidation dates, it is explicit that registered PAs should begin annual appraisals now and start collecting and reflecting on the supporting information required for revalidation.

The common gap: you teach, but it’s hard to prove

Many ACPs and PAs do plenty of teaching, but evidence is often:

• informal (“I helped the FY1s today”)

• undocumented (no plan, no feedback, no reflection)

• hard to summarise (nothing to show improvement or impact)

This course fixes that by giving you a repeatable evidence system.

How the course helps ACPs & PAs (practically)

1) A simple structure that works anywhere

You’ll learn a teaching framework you can use for:

• ward-based micro-teaching (5–10 minutes)

• induction teaching for new starters

• departmental sessions

• simulation / skills teaching

• online teaching

Same structure each time = your evidence becomes consistent and easy to review.

2) Feedback collection that’s quick (and actually useful)

Instead of vague “great session” comments, you’ll learn how to collect short feedback that helps you demonstrate:

• clarity

• relevance

• engagement

• what changed in the learner’s understanding/confidence

• what you’ll improve next time

  
  

3) Reflections that read well in appraisal

You’ll learn to write short reflections that show:

• what you did

• what feedback showed

• what you changed

• what impact that had

That “improvement loop” is what turns teaching into credible professional development.

Teaching counts most when it’s structured, evaluated, and easy to evidence.

FAQs

I’m not a formal educator, does this still apply?

Yes. Most ACPs and PAs teach through day-to-day clinical work. The course helps you capture that teaching properly.

Will this help with supervision and safe feedback?

Yes. The course focuses on practical, safe feedback and how to handle teaching in busy clinical settings, important where good supervision supports safe practice.

I’m too busy for extra admin

The aim is the opposite: you’ll learn templates and repeatable methods so your evidence capture takes minutes, not hours.

Closing

If you’re already teaching, you’re already doing valuable work. This course helps you package it into clear, portfolio-ready evidence, so your educator contribution supports your progression rather than disappearing into the day job.