Manchester Clinical Curriculum

[jeffrey_leow]

Just would like to ask about the clinical course for Manchester.

Below is from the Bute prospectus:

The same core curriculum is delivered at each teaching hospital using common clinical cases specially chosen to illustrate basic principles and disease processes.

The teaching approach is largely problem-based throughout. .

First clinical year (Manchester Medical School Year 3)

consists of a major clinical skills review and modules on ‘heart, lungs and blood’ and ‘nutrition, metabolism and excretion’ and also special study modules.

Second clinical year (Manchester Medical School Year 4)

- builds on and extends the skills learned in the previous year, and the major themes of ‘mind and movement’ and ‘family and children’.
- also a research option, where you work one-to-one usually with clinical staff.

Third clinical year (Manchester Medical School Year 5)

- supports your progression from medical student to house officer and aims to help you apply your knowledge and sharpen your skills.
- involves a series of placements to district general hospitals where you will shadow the house officers.
- One of the eight-week modules is an elective that allows you to follow any approved subject with a medical content that captures your imagination.

There are opportunities for electives within the North West , but most students choose to study elsewhere - many overseas, where they can broaden their experience, investigate different forms of health service delivery or see a different spectrum of illness.

research option

what do students do in this period? are students able to get papers published out of this effort?

an elective that allows you to follow any approved subject with a medical content that captures your imagination.

do most students do it in manchester? how about doing it in london? how do we go about doing that? are we normally accepted? say to london medical schools, or oxbridge, you know, just to get that experience.

assessment means? OSCE? MCQs? essay-type questions? any more?

[caster]

GENERAL STRUCTURE
Year 3 (1st clinical year):

Nutrition, Metabolism, Excretion: Ward attachments and PBL cases based around endocrinology, gastroenterology, general/GI surgery, urology and renal medicine. One day per week spent with a GP.
SSC1: Chance to study subject of your choice in more detail*
Heart, Lungs and Blood: Ward attachments and PBL cases based around cardiology, general medicine, chest medicine, haematology, vascular surgery and cardiothoracic surgery. One day per week spent with a GP.
SSC2: Chance to study subject of your choice in more detail*

Year 4 (2nd clinical year):

Mind & Movement: Ward attachments and PBL cases based around psychiatry, rheumatology, orthopaedic surgery and neurology. One day per week spent with a GP.
SSC3: Chance to study subject of your choice in more detail*
Families & Children: Ward attachments and PBL cases based around paediatrics, obstetrics and gynaecology. One day per week spent with a GP.
SSC4: Chance to study subject of your choice in more detail*
Project Option: Chance to do research/audit on subject of your choice

* Of the SSCs, two are spent in a teaching hospital, one in a district general hospital (DGH) and one at a GP practice.

Year 5 (final clinical year):

Elective: Period spent in another country (or occasionally in UK) experiencing different health system, in a specialty of your choice
DGH attachment: Period spent in a district general hospital (DGH) in a specialty of your choice
Community attachment: Period spent with a GP
Base hospital attachment: Period spent in a teaching hospital in a specialty of your choice
Consolidation: Period shadowing the job you will be starting when you have qualified

ELECTIVES

do most students do it in manchester? how about doing it in london? how do we go about doing that? are we normally accepted? say to london medical schools, or oxbridge, you know, just to get that experience.

You can do your elective anywhere. As the prospectus says, "there are opportunities for electives within the North West, but most students choose to study elsewhere - many overseas" - so yes, you could spend your elective period in the North West, London or Oxbridge, but most people prefer to go to Australia, New Zealand, USA, a Pacific island, or a developing country, eg in Africa or Asia. Some people also choose to go to a remote area of the UK - eg Highlands of Scotland. The trouble with London or Oxford is that they would be very similar to Manchester, so you wouldn't get a particularly different experience. You will probably have to apply to a number of places before you are accepted, but as practically all medical courses involve an elective, hospitals in countries popular with elective students are used to taking such students, and often have an "elective co-ordinator" who will be able to answer your letters.

PROJECT OPTION

what do students do in this period? are students able to get papers published out of this effort?

You do a project, usually a small part of a research project or an audit. You can either make up your own project if you can find a supervisor, etc, or can choose one of a range of projects suggested by supervisors. You may be able to publish your results, depending on what they are and what you do. Exactly what you do will depend on what project you choose. Some students want to do a biology-like lab-based project, whilst some do some kind of clinical research or audit in a hospital or general practice, whilst others may do a public health or epidemiological study.

ASSESSMENT

OSCE? MCQs? essay-type questions? any more?

In Phase 2 (first two clinical years) there are two OSCEs per year. These test what you have studied in the previous module, including practical skills, taking a history, and clinical examination.

There is also an MCQ-based exam called the Progress Test. This is sat twice in the first two clinical years, and once in the final year. These cover all areas of clinical and pre-clinical medicine, including areas which you may not have specifically studied at that time, and the same exam is sat by all clinical students. This discourages last-minute "cramming" revision, and encourages you to read widely around your subject including areas which you are not covering at that time. The pass-mark is different for each year to take into account the different experiences the different students may have.

Each Student Selected Component (SSC) - of which there are four altogether in the clinical years - involves writing a 2000-5000 word case report/essay. You are marked on both the written work and on your attendance, practical skills and enthusiasm during the SSC, and you must pass each SSC to proceed.

You will also write a written report on your Project Option. There is also a case report based on one of the patients you see during your community attachment (an 8-week attachment to a GP surgery in your final year), and an essay/report based on your experiences on your elective, comparing the health problems, healthcare system and resources in the country/place you visited with that in Manchester/UK.

In your final year, there is an Extended Matching Questions(EMQ) / Patient Management Problems (PMP) paper, where you have to match short case histories with diagnoses. There is also an OSLER exam, which is similar to an OSCE, but with some longer stations, involving seeing patients who you take a history from, examine, and then diagnose and propose treatment/management plans for.

There are no timed essay-based examinations during the clinical course.

[jeffrey_leow]

how many weeks is the elective.

do st andrews continue on with thei reseach or use the same one for the project option. u know. further it, add more details, and make it up to a paper that can be worthy to submit to a journal or sth.. get it published..
possible.

[motherfcuker]

Maybe the way the clinical course is set out may vary by 2009? Changes are most likely to be made along the way.

[jeffrey_leow]

yeah, hopefully edinburgh is available by then!

anything st a / manchester has that bristol doesnt.

[caster]

Elective is 2 months.

St Andrews students do not do much research in their BSc, so, no they do not "carry on" with existing research... you may do some small research project as part of an honours project at St Andrews, but this will not be carried on at Manchester - you choose something new for the Project Option - probably contrasting with what you have previously studied. You may be able to publish what you have done, depending on results, type of project, enthusiasm for publication, etc.

And, yes, the clinical course may have changed to some extent by the time you get there, though it is likely to have a similar structure and you are likely to cover the same kinds of areas.

[jeffrey_leow]

hey .. didnt know where posted that, but anw, u were saying clinical academies at bristol is similar to base hospitals at manchester. so, how many months do u spend at each. all 3 years at the same one u picked? or..?

[sarahwintle1]

Just wondering if you ever found out about, as a manchester student, doing research project options in other places (like London) is possible and how you go about doing it?

[j00ni]

It is definately possible as part of your elective block in 5th year, but other than that it would be difficult (though not sure if impossible) to get an SSC/project option placement outside of the remit of Manchester Uni (ie the base hospitals and related DGHs)