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Student in ED at Hull Royal Infirmary

Clinical placements

We start clinical placements from the beginning of your Medicine programme, and a breadth of experience rarely matched by other medical schools.

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Introduction

A breadth of experience

We are passionate about ensuring our students learn from meeting patients. That’s why we start regular clinical placements from the beginning of our programme, delivering a significantly higher proportion of our curriculum in these environments than many other medical schools.

As a doctor, you will treat patients from a range of backgrounds in a variety of settings and our placements provide a breadth of experience to ensure you are prepared for this.

You will experience placements throughout the region, range from rural and coastal regions to densely populated urban environments, offering a different patient demographic and experience at each site.

This breadth of clinical experience gives you the opportunity to explore different specialties.

As a doctor, you will treat patients from a range of backgrounds in a variety of settings and our placements will ensure you are prepared for this.

We regularly review our placement offering to ensure you get the very best clinical experience across our region, and so it is possible that changes to the way we deliver placements may become necessary in future years.

From surgery to psychiatry, general practice to paediatrics and beyond, your experience will stand you in good stead for a career delivering exceptional care.

Medical students and their clinician supervisor on a clinical placement in ED at Hull Royal Infirmary
Medicine student and a GP with a patient at Brough GP Surgery
Medical student with patient a GP surgery, being supervised by a GP
Medical students in discussion with a colleague at Brough GP Surgery

What happens in clinical placements

Early and sustained clinical exposure

Starting in your first year, you will go on clinical placements every week, building up to full-time placements from your third year onwards.

Gateway Year

If you are studying the Medicine with a Gateway Year programme, you will visit clinical environments from the very start of the Gateway Year, spending time with healthcare professionals.

Placements in the Gateway Year take place throughout the three terms.

Clinical tutor and medical students

Years 1 and 2

In Year 1, you will spend half a day each week on clinical placement, alternating between GP/community care settings and hospitals. This builds up to two half days per week in Year 2.

The hospital placements will be in your home campus city (Hull or York).

Your experience will help you learn and put into context what you have learnt in your other studies during each week through your PBL, anatomy, and clinical and communication skills sessions, and your lecture, workshops and your own self-directed learning.

You will interact with patients to develop your consultation and examination skills.

Medicine students on a hospital ward at Hull Royal Infirmary

Year 3 and 4

Phase II is the moment you've been working towards: full exposure to clinical medicine. You will spend four days per week in a hospital and one day per week at a general practice, as well as visiting community care settings.

You will put your examination, history-taking and problem-solving skills into practice with patients.

In Year 4, you can choose to take part in the Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship (LIC) instead of the 'traditional' placements. In the LIC you are immersed in the whole patient journey, following the same patients over time in varied clinical settings.

Medicine student and a GP with a patient at Brough GP Surgery

Year 5

Your final year focuses on transitioning to life as a junior doctor. You will complete rotations in medicine, surgery and general practice across our region. You'll be the junior member (assistant intern) of a multidisciplinary team and gain experience of on-call and shift arrangements duties.

On surgical attachments, you will 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.

Medicine students on a clinical placement in ED at Hull Royal Infirmary

Locations

Where are clinical placements?

In your first two years you will attend placements in or around your home campus city – the University of Hull or the University of York.

From Year 3 onwards, you will visit a range of placement sites across our region. Our placement sites include:

  • Castle Hill Hospital (Hull)
  • Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital (Grimsby)
  • Friarage Hospital (Northallerton)
  • Hull Royal Infirmary (Hull)
  • James Cook Hospital (Middlesbrough)
  • Scarborough Hospital (Scarborough)
  • Scunthorpe General Hospital (Scunthorpe)
  • York Hospital (York)
  • GP surgeries across our region
  • Community providers – dermatology, sexual health, mental health, women’s health and paediatrics

We regularly review our placement offering to ensure you get the very best clinical experience across our region, and so it is possible that changes to the way we deliver placements may become necessary in future years.

Locations of clinical placements
Vigneshwar Veerappan

HULL YORK MEDICAL SCHOOL Stories

Placements have been one of the most exciting experiences of my first two years in medical school. While drawing from the clinical experience from a range of hospital and GP tutors, you also meet patients with different conditions from different backgrounds. Learning to communicate with patients effectively when they are at their weakest, and to empathise with them makes you feel like you are helping the patient’s health and wellbeing even before joining the workforce.
Year 5

Vigneshwar Veerappan

Student support

A support network to help you succeed

You will be allocated a clinical tutor who will act as your Educational Supervisor and will help you develop your consultation and examination skills, improve your knowledge and skills, and support your learning.

We have dedicated teaching and communal spaces for our students at each of our hospital placement sites. At your hospital’s teaching facilities there will be a medical library, computers, lockers, and a kitchen and common room where you can relax and catch-up with other students and clinicians.

Our friendly Student Liaison Teams are based at our dedicated teaching facilities at each hospital, to ensure you receive support while on placement. You also continue to have access to our dedicated Student Support Team as well as the student support services at your university.

Students chatting to a member of the Student Liaison Team at Hull Royal Infirmary

Student Liaison Team

Students examining a digital patient case study with a clinician

Digital table

Medicine students outside Hull Royal Infirmary

Outside Hull Royal Infirmary

Medicine students having a discussion at Castle Hill Hospital

Castle Hill Hospital

Medicine graduate Alexander McNeil

Medicine graduates share their experience of placements

In this video, some of our Medicine graduates describe:

  • What they did on clinical placements
  • How their clinical placements helped to build their knowledge and confidence in dealing with patients
  • How their placements provided some of their most memorable experiences during Medical School