Overview

The MBChB programme is structured around four primary curriculum components: The Foundations of Medicine, Clinical Practice, Personal Excellence Path and Personal & Professional Development.

Learning in Years 1, 2 and the GEM Year emphasises the Foundations of Medicine. Years 3 and 4 integrate the foundations of medicine with clinical experience in general and specialty medical practice. Year 5 emphasises clinical experience that supports your preparation for practice as a doctor. You create your Personal Excellence Path (through a series of projects and placements) and demonstrate your personal and professional development through an e-portfolio across all five years.

Graduate Entry Medicine Year 

During Year 1, you will progress through learning weeks focused around a themed-case, explored in small groups of 9-10 students, using a problem-based learning (PBL) approach. The cases contextualise learning to prepare you for the way in which doctors meet patient problems; the small group problem-based approach will develop your skills in collaborative group working and independent learning.    

Alongside the case learning each week, you will be provided with a narrative curriculum summarising your expected learning journey for the week, along with a list of theme-based intended learning outcomes (ILOs). Your case-based learning will be supplemented by a variety of other teaching activities including: Clinically focused anatomy tutorials, practical consultation and clinical skills teaching within our Consultation Skills Learning Centre (CSLC), and interactive seminars on a variety of themes related to medical sciences. These themes include: The behavioural and social sciences, ethics and law and evidence-based medicine. There will be clinical application seminars, designed to highlight how foundations of medicine theory is applied in the clinical setting and to aid understanding of clinical reasoning concepts. 

There are personal development activities within both our Professionalism and ‘Doctors as Humans’ seminars, that are designed to introduce you to the skills and attitudes necessary to become a successful resident doctor.  A key professional requirement of a doctor is to be able to demonstrate your own  Personal and Professional Development (PPD), recording evidence of this in a portfolio. You will be supported by an Academic Advisor to develop your ability to do this. The advisor’s purpose is to encourage you to develop your reflective approach to learning, which is an essential aspect of safe medical practice. 

You will undertake Early Clinical Experience in a variety of formats within the year. These are designed to initiate familiarisation with the clinical environment. These sessions will include campus-based practical sessions, utilising simulated patients and models within our CSLC suite as mentioned above, but will also involve visits to local community-based and hospital environments allowing interaction with real patients. Our 2-week ‘Health in Manchester’ block mid-way through the year is designed to highlight the diverse health needs of the Manchester population through a variety of activities including visits to local Health centres and other community-based initiatives that serve our local population. 

Following the Graduate Entry Medicine year, you will move into Year 3 of the MBChB programme.

Years 1-2

Year 1 begins with an introductory block of Essential Skills. This will prepare you for learning in a university degree programme, introduce you to the components of Years 1 and 2 and ensure that you have the core skills to interact with and meet patients in early clinical experience settings. Thereafter, you will learn the foundations of medicine through a series of modules across Years 1 and 2:

• Year 1: Life Cycle and Cardiorespiratory Fitness
• Year 2: Mind and Movement and Nutrition and Metabolism

You will develop a critical thinking approach through clinically inspired Themed Case Discussions (TCD), which are delivered via a Team Based Learning (TBL) approach. To support this theoretical learning and apply key principles you will work in practical settings: Anatomy dissection, physiology and pharmacology practical classes. These elements will provide you with the firm foundation in basic medical sciences you will need for your later years, when you are immersed in clinical environments.

In parallel to the above, you will undertake Early Clinical Experience, which will begin to familiarise you with the clinical environment. These sessions will include visits to local hospitals, general practices and classroom-based sessions that will introduce you to clinical communication, clinical reasoning and patient assessment skills  (history taking, physical examination and procedural skills) with both simulated and real patients. You will also be required to undertake two modules of the Personal Excellence Path (PEP) giving you the chance to choose for yourself what you want to study.

A key professional requirement as a doctor is to be able to demonstrate your own personal and professional development (PPD),  recording evidence of this in a portfolio. You will be supported by an Academic Advisor to develop your ability to do this. The advisor’s purpose is to introduce you to a reflective approach to learning, which is an essential aspect of safe medical practice.

Years 3-5

Across Years 3 to 5 you will apply the principles of the Foundations of Medicine in all aspects of your study. Clinical placements will emphasise the opportunities to engage in increasingly complex patient care. You will be expected to immerse yourself in the healthcare environment. You will be supported by Clinical Placement Supervisors and healthcare professionals working in a variety of settings: Wards, community practices, outpatient clinics, theatres, clinical skills labs, and taught sessions. All activities in the clinical placement will be designed to inspire curiosity and encourage responsibility in you as a future doctor. Clinical Placement Supervisors, as placement leads, will be integral to engendering a learning culture within the clinical environment by ensuring engagement of all clinical team members (whether nurses, pharmacists, administrators or doctors to name a few). You will be guided as you progress through key transitions in the programme through the purposeful structure of semesters and aligned assessments.

Year 3

Learning in Year 3 will evolve through a sequence of placements in general clinical environments spending the majority of the week learning from patients. You will become familiar with the clinical working environment through the deliberate practice of patient assessment skills. Later clinical placements will increase in complexity encouraging application of clinical reasoning processes to interpret information and apply prior knowledge to develop diagnostic, investigational and management plans for patients.

Year 3 consists of two semesters containing blocks of clinical placements. In addition, taught curricular content will be delivered within each Clinical Education Campus on a specified teaching and learning day.

For those NOT on the GEM pathway – The Applied Personal Excellence Pathway (APEP) will be after these placements, followed by the Student Selected Clinical Placement (SSCP). The Applied Personal Excellence Pathway (APEP) gives students the opportunity to carry out an original project involving, for example, basic or applied research, service evaluation, or educational development, supervised by a subject expert from the University or the NHS.

For those on the GEM pathway ONLY – The GEM Block aims to focus on the Foundations of Medicine not covered in the GEM year but required to enter Year 4 of the 5 Year pathway. This will include focus around women’s health, child health and special senses. You will also undertake a short project to create a poster presentation within this time. 

The final activity of the year will allow you to select a Student Selected Clinical Placement in an area of clinical interest to you from within our Health Education Zones. The placement will give you the time and opportunity to reflect on future career choices within medicine.

Throughout the year you will upload reflective pieces into your PPD portfolio which you will discuss with your academic advisor over the year.

Year 4

Year 4 will build on the previous year by broadening students’ experience and practice through a variety of placements in clinical specialties. These are arranged in two rotations: Specialty Rotation A and B. Each rotation consists of 16 weeks immersion in clinical placements. Now more than ever, you will experience the breadth of the care provided in the NHS. In order to engage fully in this, you will be provided placements in geographical settings across the Greater Manchester area, North Wales, Preston and parts of Yorkshire.

Rotation A: 16 weeks	Rotation B: 16 weeks
Children’s Health	Neurology and Special Senses
Women’s  Health	Mental Health
General Practice	Ageing and Complex Health
Cancer, Skin and Infection	Musculoskeletal Health

Supporting immersion in clinical practice, students will, in parallel, in Years 3 and 4, continue to engage in formal taught components through facilitated Themed Case Discussions using blended learning. Each week there are online cases to work through. At the end of each week they will be presented with new case material in group working sessions. Students will be required to direct lines of enquiry, draw on existing knowledge, and then analyse and present their evidence through application of clinical reasoning to their peer group. At the end of Year 4 students will be encouraged to broaden their understanding of different health systems through the student-selected elective placement.

Year 5 

Year 5 placements will prepare students for finals examinations and for practice in the post-graduate national (foundation) and international (internship) programmes.

Students will complete four clinical placements rotating through General Medicine, Surgery, Acutely-ill and General Practice prior to the Finals in March. Students who do not pass one or more elements at this time must resit any failed element (see Assessments).

Following the Finals Exams you will undertake two further 4-week placements; your Quality and Evidence PEP, and a dedicated post-finals student assistantship.

Please see the Curriculum Mapping Tool for the intended learning outcomes of the MBChB programme (we recommend you view the information in the list view).