A breadth of experiences to prepare you to deliver brilliant healthcare
As a doctor, you will treat patients from a range of backgrounds in a variety of settings. Our placements provide valuable insight and a breadth of experience within primary and secondary care settings and across a range of locations to ensure you develop the knowledge and skills needed to deliver brilliant healthcare.
From week three of the programme you will experience regular clinical placement, starting at one half day per week in your first year at a location within 30 minutes of your home campus. In your second year, this will increase to one full day per week, and from your third year onwards, you will rotate through different medical and surgical specialities in hospitals and primary care settings throughout the region.
Placement locations range from rural and coastal regions to densely populated urban environments, and as such offer a completely different patient demographic and experience at each site. This breadth of clinical experience is rarely matched by other medical schools, and gives you a real insight into the diversity of career paths available to you as a practising medic.
My favourite part of the programme is definitely the early contact we have with patients. It has helped develop my communication skills, particularly with patients - little things like learning bedside manner, patient cues, and non-verbal communication.
Phase I: Years 1 and 2
In your first year you will spend half a day a week (from week 3) in a clinical placement within thirty minutes of your campus in groups of four or five students. On placement, you will interact with patients to develop the consultation and examination skills you have been learning. In your second year, your time in placement increases to a day a week.
Phase II: Years 3 and 4
Phase II is the moment you've been working towards: full exposure to clinical medicine. You will rotate through different medical and surgical specialities in hospitals and primary care settings throughout the region.
Our five sites in Hull, York, Grimbsy, Scarborough and Scunthorpe allow you to experience a wide range of medical conditions in a diverse social setting. This wide dispersion allows for good staff/student ratios in all teaching and learning exchanges (the optimum group size for learning in a practical environment is two to four) and it also provides extensive opportunity for one-to-one consultation practice with patients.
Each week, you will continue to alternate between a hospital and general practice or other community setting. Some are city-based, while others are further afield in small towns or rural areas.
You'll practice your examination, history-taking and problem-solving skills on real patients. You'll also learn essential clinical skills such as taking blood, inserting intravenous cannulas, and bladder catheterisation, all taught by dedicated specialist skills tutors.
Phase III: Year 5
When you return from your elective and start your final year, you'll be the junior member (assistant intern) of a medical team. In this role, you'll rotate through general medicine, general surgery and general practice. You'll become more experienced in the skills required as a junior doctor, and you'll gain valuable experience working closely with a multidisciplinary team. Your working hours will be similar to those of a junior doctor, including on-call and shift arrangements.
On surgical attachments, you should have opportunities to take part in pre-operative and post-operative care, and you'll be allocated patients for whom you are responsible, following these patients to theatre. In general practice, you'll see patients in surgery, taking responsibility for a range of common conditions under the supervision of the GP. You'll gain experience of prescribing, diagnosis and managing patients' conditions in a variety of settings, and learn how to perform the kinds of routine medical procedures that are part of a junior doctor's role.
After you've taken your final exams, you'll begin the final phase of your undergraduate training. This consists of an assistantship, which will help to prepare you for your role as a junior doctor.