Each week in clinical placements you will have 1/2 – 1 day per week of formal teaching activities which are mandatory to attend. Teaching may be scheduled as online or face-to-face delivery, depending on the topic and arrangements for the session. You should build your timetable of clinical experience around teaching events that have been scheduled for you. All students should refer to the Programme’s guidance: Student ‘Netiquette’ for remotely-delivered teaching sessions in order to get the best out of online teaching sessions.

If you are unable to attend a scheduled formal teaching session please follow the standard process for absence reporting, and also contact the Year 5 Administrator at your Clinical Education Campus in case there is any electronic learning resource you can use to help lessen the impact of missing the session. See Attendance Requirements for core teaching.

Core sessions

These sessions have been designed to help you to achieve key competencies which the GMC expect of junior doctors, as well as those required in order to pass mandatory University and National assessments. The sessions comprise workshops, lectures, seminars and case presentations by students in the presence of a tutor.

Sessions will be added to your timetable on 1Med.

Subjects include but are not limited to:

• Prescribing skills, including preparation for the Prescribing Safety Assessment;
• Communication skills;
• Ethics;
• Blood transfusion skills;
• Wound management;
• Simulation.

Immediate Life Support (ILS) Course 

In Year 5, you have two opportunities to attend and pass a mandatory Immediate Life Support (ILS) course provided by the University. Failure to do so will mean you have not fulfilled the requirements for Year 5 clinical placements and skills and you will need to self-arrange and self-fund an ILS course or equivalent prior to graduation to demonstrate the relevant GMC, Outcomes for Graduates, 2018, Outcome 17. Please contact your CEC Year Lead to discuss an alternative course prior to booking to confirm this meets programme requirements.

Enhancement sessions

You will also have some informal teaching sessions which have been provided to reinforce your learning. There will be some variety in the delivery and content of these sessions. They will be determined locally by the tutors’ backgrounds and experience, as well as students’ requests/requirements. Examples of these sessions include: bedside teaching sessions with consultants, hospital Grand Rounds, additional prescribing skills sessions with pharmacists and interactive tutorials with junior doctors. The arrangements for these local teaching events will always be dependant on any constraints within the NHS.