Skills

Study Skills

Students receive instruction and guidance on different learning skills from Year 1 through to the end of the course, including early study skills sessions and directed study sessions with an increasing emphasis on self-study. The Personal and Professional Skills course in Years 1 and 2 reinforces students’ abilities and confidence to apply scientific method and extend their learning skills and techniques. Library support and IT sessions are run in Year 1 to teach students on-line research skills.

Clinical Skills

From Year 2 students begin to learn and practise core clinical skills whilst on clinical placements, both on wards and within clinical skills laboratories. The curriculum in Years 1 and 2 emphasises understanding of the scientific basis for clinical skills.

In Year 3 over 100 firms across ten hospital sites are used for clinical teaching. This can result in inconsistencies in experience and gaps in student knowledge. The Core Competencies Project, funded by the North West London Workforce Development Confederation, is currently underway to address this issue. The project aims to assess the feasibility of introducing a structured programme of core clinical competency training for Year 3 students and develop a standardised minimum teaching programme for core clinical skills across clinical placements for Year 3 students. So far, the project team team has produced a draft compilation of core skills and carried out interviews with Firm Leaders, students and Directors of Clinical Studies. The next stage of the project is to agree an implementation plan that would allow integration of the project into current practice using existing teaching resources.

Communication Skills

The Communications Skills Programme (CSP) is designed to span the six years of the undergraduate curriculum. In Year 1, the CSP is one of several elements in the Foundations of Clinical Practice (FOCP) theme.

A dedicated Communication Skills programme is taught in Years 1 and 2 that includes assessments with written feedback for students. This teaching is reinforced throughout the course, in particular during the Year 5 and 6 placements in general practice. Communications skills are practised and monitored throughout clinical attachments and are formally assessed in the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE), at the end of Year 3, and in the Final examinations, which are in the PACES format.

Communication skills also form an integral part of the BSc and students are trained to present scientific data and arguments formally, both orally and in writing.