Medicine MBChB

Teaching

As a graduate you’ll know the importance of self-directed learning. You’ll be taught by patients, doctors and other members of the healthcare team (in addition to basic and applied scientists), and it will be up to you to make the most of these valuable learning opportunities.

All your teaching and learning activity, including assessments and work-place based assessments, will be documented in an eportfolio, where you will be required to reflect on your progress towards Outcomes for Graduates.

Contact time

The course is full-time, and you should be prepared for eight hours of learning every day. About half of this will be in small groups, facilitated by tutors and co-learning with other students, or listening to lectures or in skills-based sessions, seminars and tutorials.

When on placement you will attend formal teaching sessions and should actively seek out learning opportunities with patients. Much of the teaching will utilise Blackboard, our virtual learning environment

Independent self study

In addition to the contact time, you are expected to be a self-directed learner.

Typically, in Phase one (years one and two) this will involve following up on resources in the learning weeks, reading around the topics in order to reinforce the content, completing online activities, reading journal articles and books, working on individual and group projects, undertaking research in the library and online, preparing coursework assignments, presentations and project work.

In Phase two (years three and four) there will be more clinical content and you will need to be reading up on patients you have seen in the day. You will be practising clinical skills, which might also include practising some examinations on each other. Although this might sound daunting it is an excellent way to understand normal anatomy and how to set 'patients' at their ease and we have a number of ways to make this safe, private and comfortable for all students.

Independent learning is supported by a range of learning facilities, including The Hive library resources, the virtual learning environment, and extensive electronic learning resources. If needed you will also have access to learning resources such as study skills and additional English language support.

Duration

• 4 years full-time

There is no part-time option.

Location of teaching

In Phase one (years one and two) the majority of the time will be spent on campus.  Here you will work in a problem-based learning group, with access to a ‘Resource Carousel’ of learning aids, clinical skills practice and opportunities to talk to patients and simulated patients.

Also, in Phase one a total of 15 weeks is spent on placement in secondary care (hospitals). You will also spend one day every three weeks on placement in primary care (General Practice); this amounts to a total of four weeks.  These placements can be in clinical areas anywhere in Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire.

In Phase 2 (years three and four) you will be in clinical areas for the whole time; in year three in the community (both primary and secondary care) and in year four in secondary care in acute hospitals. In final year there is also an elective opportunity.

We will make the most of digital technology and asynchronous learning which means you will be introduced, for example, to video podcasts that can be accessed at a time and location convenient to you, and to online tutorials and seminars.

The location of placements could be anywhere in the Three Counties of Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire, and can involve extensive travel around the region.

Timetables

Please note that scheduled teaching is mandatory and can take place on any day of the week; some classes can be scheduled in the evenings. You may be expected to attend placements out of hours and at weekends and we encourage you to take up the unique opportunities that that offers. Sometimes going onto the wards at weekends means you will have greater access to junior doctors willing to teach, or to spend more time with patients.  

You are likely to find the pace fast and your days busy. Most students will not be able to work many sessions in paid employment in parallel with their studies. The course is challenging but rewarding, and you will be well supported along the way.

A week in the life of a medical student

A week in the life of a Three Counties Medical School student - Phase One

At the start of each week you will need to read the Study Guide which sets out the learning outcomes and learning opportunities for the week. On Monday the first formal session is in a lecture format and is called ‘Map Reading’ because the tutor will go through the ‘journey’ planned for the week - where you will go, what you will see and what you will bring back home. 

The next session is Problem Based Learning (PBL).  Here you will be in a group of about eight students with a facilitator who is a doctor.  The facilitator is not there to teach; indeed, he or she will spend most of the time listening. 

You will be discussing two or three ‘Presentations’, realistic patient scenarios that a doctor might encounter. 

The aim is to identify what you know and what you do not know in order to understand the problem or problems (there are usually several) that the patient presents.  The facilitator will keep you on track. The Presentations are carefully constructed to point to the learning required in the week.  You will end up with a number of learning outcomes, things you don’t know or understand.

The next session is learning about the consultation, the key interaction between doctor and patient.  This will be either talking to a simulated patient (usually an actor) or performing a physical examination.  This will be examining each other but we have guidelines on how this is done to avoid embarrassment.

Most of the rest of the week is about finding out the answers to the questions posed in the PBL groups.  Some of this is in the form of a ‘carousel’ where you will learn about normal and abnormal structure and function. This might include anatomical models or images.  Another is called ‘applied physiology and procedural skills’ where you will learn skills and procedures such as venepuncture.  These are all linked to the learning outcomes for the week and the PBL presentations.

One week in three you will be on a placement in primary care where you are likely to meet patients with similar problems to those in the PBL group and discuss your progress with the Year Long Case Studies.

At the end of the week there is a ‘wrap up’ session where we all go back to the Map and see what we have learned.  Then it’s another PBL session where you discuss what you have learned; do we all now understand the Presentations, is there anything else we don’t know?  We then have another session on the consultation.

A week in the life of a Three Counties Medical School student - Year 3

Every week will be as varied as the patients but here are some of the experiences you can expect.  Not all will happen each week!

• Sitting in on a GP surgery
• Consulting on your own under supervision
• Attending a specialist clinic in the local hospital
• Attending an endoscopy session in the local hospital
• Spending an evening and a night on acute paediatric admissions
• Performing a ward round on patients in the community hospital with student members of other health care staff
• Spending time with the psychiatric ‘crisis team’
• Having your consultation skills observed by your educational supervisor and receiving feedback on them
• Taking part in a ‘communications master class’
• Attending a webinar.

Problem Based Learning

Problem Based Learning, or PBL, means you’ll work in small groups facilitated by practicing doctors following a 'problem based learning' curriculum.  This often starts with the problems patients bring to you, and means you will learn about health from both the doctors’ and patients’ perspective.

For more information watch this video introduction to Problem Based Learning at the Three Counties Medical School.

Teaching staff

You will be taught by a teaching team whose expertise and knowledge are closely matched to the learning outcomes of your course. Often that is likely to be by practicing clinicians and all the problem-based learning facilitators will be medical practitioners.

You will mainly be taught by senior academics,  and expert technicians will support practical sessions. We value and respect the multi-disciplinary nature of healthcare delivery in the UK and you will be fortunate to also number nurses, midwives, paramedics, physicians’ associates and others among your teachers.

Assessment

The MBChB award is continuously assessed and we only accept students we think will be able to complete the course satisfactorily. If you engage and take up all learning and teaching opportunities, there should be no surprises about your progress through the course. You will complete mandatory ‘formative assessments’ throughout your course, to give you feedback on your progress and enable extra support or action to be taken if needed.

There are also a number of ‘summative assessments’ that enable us to make decisions about students’ progression to the next stage. Assessment methods include multiple choice exams, OSCEs (Objective Structured Clinical Examination), presentations, posters, on-line activities and project reports.  You will also have an eportfolio which logs and demonstrates progress in a series of workplace based assessments from your clinical placements and mimics the assessments you will continue to undergo when you are a doctor and start further speciality training.

Assessment of procedural ability is through an OSCE. 

At the end of each year a judgement is reached on whether you have reached the minimum requirement to progress to the next year of the course.

The General Medical Council sets a Prescribing Safety Assessment and the final Medical Licencing Assessment to ensure all graduates reach the appropriate standard to become a doctor and enter the medical workforce. They accredit all medical schools to ensure the degree they run is fit for purpose.