Education lies at the heart of quality in today’s primary care, and in shaping the primary care of the future. Our Primary Care and General Practice Teams deliver teaching across the Undergraduate curriculum.

Community-based learning opportunities exist throughout the 4 years of the course and are designed to enable students to achieve specific learning outcomes identified by the General Medical Council. The General Medical Council states that clinical placements should reflect the patterns of health care in the UK. As more patients are receiving medical and health care in outpatient and primary care settings, it is important that medical students learn in community settings, including patients’ homes, GP surgeries, health centres, community hospitals, care homes, and the premises of local organisations and charities.

General Practice placements, organised by Dr Sue Davies, occur in Phase II and Phase III. In Phase II, students experience 3 different practices and concentrate on developing consultation skills in history taking, examination and management. In Phase III, the students spend 6 weeks with one practice, where they can further enhance their consultation skills while also undergoing advanced communication training for one day per week at the Medical School. They will also concentrate on the complex patient management issues that occur in chronic diseases, multi-morbidity, poly-pharmacy and end-of-life cases.

In addition, we have worked with a number of students on a range of primary care focused SSC2 Special Selected Component projects. Students have gone on to present their work at regional and national conferences. Examples of recent primary care projects can be seen hereLink opens in a new window and here.Link opens in a new window

We recognise that education and training are core to personal and professional development of all staff. We actively support the personal development of all our staff, in conjunction with the range of learning opportunities within WMS. In addition, we encourage all our staff to join the Society for Academic Primary Care, for additional opportunities for career development.

For general enquiries contact Emma Sweenie-Fuller, Phase II Secretary e dot j dot sweenie-fuller at warwick dot ac dot uk