MB BS Student Handbook 2013/14

Norwich Medical School
MB BS
Student Handbook
2013/14
Image courtesy of Michael Pullinger, 2012/13 Dean’s Picture Competition Entry
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Contents
The Head of School’s Welcome ............................................................................................................... 3
The Course Director’s Welcome .............................................................................................................. 3
Two MB BS graduates’ views on making the most out of UEA ............................................................... 4
A Note from the Editor............................................................................................................................ 6
How the course is organised ................................................................................................................... 7
The modules in the MB BS degree and Student Recommended Books ............................................. 7
Term dates......................................................................................................................................... 14
Outcome of the course ..................................................................................................................... 16
How you will be taught ......................................................................................................................... 16
Problem Based Learning (PBL) .......................................................................................................... 16
Lectures and Seminars ...................................................................................................................... 18
Research Methods and Clinical Audit ............................................................................................... 18
Student Selected Studies (SSS).......................................................................................................... 19
Consultation Skills ............................................................................................................................. 21
Interprofessional Education & Learning (IPL) .................................................................................... 21
Primary Care...................................................................................................................................... 22
Secondary Care ................................................................................................................................. 24
Clinical Skills ...................................................................................................................................... 25
Dress code for Clinical Placement (Primary and Secondary Care) .................................................... 26
Portfolio and reflective practice. ....................................................................................................... 28
Studies Allied to Medicine (SAM)/Studies Outside Medicine (SOM). ............................................... 29
How you will be assessed ...................................................................................................................... 29
Objective Structured Clinical Exam (OSCE) ....................................................................................... 29
Logbooks ........................................................................................................................................... 30
End of Year Written Exam ................................................................................................................. 31
Research Methods ............................................................................................................................ 32
Portfolio Reports ............................................................................................................................... 33
Primary Care and PBL tutor reports .................................................................................................. 33
Self and peer assessment of professional standards ........................................................................ 34
Student held records ......................................................................................................................... 34
Intercalation to complete an MRes, MClinEd or Intercalated BSc .................................................... 35
A student’s guide to coping with constant assessment ........................................................................ 38
Course Progression and Reassessment ................................................................................................. 39
School Feedback ................................................................................................................................... 41
How assessment results are given .................................................................................................... 42
Student feedback/evaluation and the Student Staff Liaison Committee ............................................. 44
Course Evaluation.............................................................................................................................. 44
Student Representation .................................................................................................................... 45
Module teams ................................................................................................................................... 45
What the School expects from you ....................................................................................................... 51
Where you can seek help ...................................................................................................................... 54
How to avoid burn-out ...................................................................................................................... 56
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The Head of School’s Welcome
I want to extend you the warmest possible welcome to Norwich
Medical School. Medicine is a degree course (MB BS) but it is so
much more. It is the entry qualification for one of the greatest
professions. To be allowed to practise medicine, to come close to
patients when vulnerable; to have responsibility for those who
cannot defend themselves; and to cure or prevent disease; these
are the greatest privileges anyone can be given.
Our course is one that not only will prepare you for your first day
as a doctor, but will teach you the skills needed to learn
throughout your career. So much of what I learnt at medical
school has changed. It is now your responsibility to not only
become a good doctor, but stay one. Our course will put you in
the strongest position for learning during the rest of your career.
Being a doctor requires you to be a professional. Much is written
about this. However, I can make this easy for you – you can
always calibrate your behaviour at anytime. Ask yourself
whether you and your parents would be proud of what you are doing. When with a patient, behave
as if you were treating a close relative and you won’t go far wrong. But also behave well to your
teachers, and to each other. Norwich Medical School and the GMC expect you to behave
professionally from day one.
So, can I give you some advice? Work hard, read widely, learn widely, and behave well. Listen to what
the patient tells you, the history of their illness is the key to diagnosis and management. If you
struggle with the course ask for help early; and remember, “A journey of a thousand miles begins
with the first step”. That step is today. I give you my best wishes for what will be a fantastic life.
Professor David Crossman
Dean of Norwich Medical School
The Course Director’s Welcome
Studying medicine at UEA is an exciting and
rewarding time. Medicine is ever changing and
constantly fascinating. The people you will meet:
students, academics, clinicians, as well as the many
patients you will see, make medicine a special
course, and a wonderful, if demanding career.
So what do you need to know to get started? Our
course depends on your enthusiasm to learn from
others; academics, clinicians and patients – and, as
importantly, from your fellow students. We rely on
you sharing that learning with your colleagues. If
both elements are there you will thrive, but if either is missing you will struggle.
To succeed you also need to study hard outside timetabled sessions. This involves preparing for your
Problem Based Learning (PBL) sessions – by writing up work you have been set, and reading up about
your colleagues’ objectives – either from their work, or from textbooks, course material etc.
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Additionally, make the most of your clinical attachments so you become competent and confident in
your clinical skills. These skills take a huge amount of practice and cannot be learnt from books.
The course is five years short (not long). It will fly by! I wish you the very best of luck; make the most
of the opportunities to learn; work with your colleagues; study hard but also do make time to enjoy
activities outside medicine.
Professor Richard Holland
Course Director
Two MB BS graduates’ views on
making the most of UEA
Welcome to our excellent school and to this lovely university.
During my time at UEA I never ceased to be impressed by this
institution’s continued efforts to make their students excel.
Here you will have a chance to be inspired, to work hard and
to grow as a person and as a medical professional. The next
few lines include a few words of advice that I hope you will
find useful.
Medical school is often advertised as a daunting experience,
filled with endless coursework, stressful deadlines and the
pressure to be flawless. Despite this, I cannot help feeling that
this has been the time of my life. Yes, there is a considerable
amount of coursework but if you’re organised and you work
smartly you will find the time to socialise or even to pursue a
long-lost interest.
The 5 years are split into 13 system-based modules plus the
electives, and clinical scenarios set the base for learning. Most
students find this enlightening as they become aware of how core science adds to clinical practice.
Problem-based learning makes this possible. I find it engaging to learn from weekly scenarios, group
discussions and patient contact.
To make the most of your days at this medical school, I would encourage you to be a team player and
be enthusiastic and self-driven. Working well as part of a team will be an asset, if not a requirement,
throughout your career. In your groups, or clinical placements you will cross paths with people who
have different attitudes, beliefs and morals from your own, but learning to work together towards a
common goal is a real challenge, and one that will help you become a better doctor. Being
enthusiastic doesn’t necessarily mean staying overtime or working relentlessly (unless you want
to…). It means you will benefit more if you read up on what you are learning that week (not just from
other people’s PBLs or from seminar slides but from core textbooks) preferably before you go on
placement. Clinical placements (both in general practice and hospitals) should consolidate the
information you have been fed and put it into context, so make sure you read beforehand. Also, after
you see patients it is infinitely helpful to read about their condition, adding a palpable experience to
your brain’s imprint of it. However, if you do choose to take this advice into practice, beware that
even as a medical student, the day only has 24 hours so you will need to plan and be organised. I find
it helpful to pinpoint my weakest areas of knowledge and allow myself to spend more time with
those. It is easy to get ‘bogged down’ with details and spend too much time with one subject. In
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retrospect, I now see that I don’t need to know every detail on one topic but, more importantly, I
should grasp the overall picture of as many topics as I can.
Even with busy academic timetables, most medics strive to fit in special interests, be those sporting
activities or other recreational pursuits. The Union of UEA students provides over 100 student run
sports and non-sporting societies, so you will easily find something to interest you. University life
may also be the perfect time to get involved in voluntary work. My best advice to you is: enjoy
yourself, make friends, get involved and create the foundations for a healthier body and mind. This
will make you more human and that’s what a better doctor ultimately is. Good luck!
Dr Inês Fernandes Soares
UEA Graduate July 2011
The UEA offers a unique environment in which to study medicine – if you’re enthusiastic, it’s a
fantastic place to be and rife with opportunities! Here are a few words on how to make the very best
of the time you have here:

Work hard and keep up to date – unlike other didactic
courses, UEA affords the opportunity for self-study, which is
an important skill and well worth perfecting for your postgraduate studies. So where possible, aim to learn everything
you can at the first opportunity, because you may not get
another chance!

Maintain a life outside of medicine – studying on the MB BS
degree programme is great fun but also tiring and
occasionally stressful too. It is remarkably easy to become
exhausted through completely focussing on study; therefore
it is vital that you maintain regular interests and hobbies
outside of medicine, in order to sustain a healthy and
enduring work-life balance.

Take every opportunity that comes – life is short and many
situations only present themselves to you once. Be they
academic, social or otherwise, try to experience as much as
you can whilst at UEA and avoid the temptation to simply
cruise through.
Medicine at UEA will: teach you facts of life and death and how to manipulate them as a doctor;
deliver unparalleled patient experiences as an undergraduate; make you laugh and very probably cry;
bring you closer to some people and light years from others; nurture extreme happiness and success,
but possibly also deliver some failure to boot. Being a medical student today is a whirlwind and akin
to nothing else, so be prepared for anything, strive on tenaciously as “nothing ventured, nothing
gained” and know that for every endeavour, luck favours the well prepared.
I wish you all the very best of luck and future success.
Dr Ryckie G Wade
UEA Graduate July 2011
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A Note from the Editor
This guide is intended to give you the key information that will help you in the next 5 years of your
life as a medical student. It will give you an introduction to some of the key people and aspects of the
UEA MB BS degree. However, it is impossible to include all the information you need in such a small
space, thus you will also have access to a wealth of information on Blackboard as well as from
members of Faculty and other students. Almost every entry below has more detailed information
about it on Blackboard – your ‘Virtual learning environment’ – which you will gain access to when
you start at UEA. You should access that information as and when you need it.
This handbook is based on a version previously put together in 2009. It was significantly updated for
2013/13 with help from four other medical students: Antonia Clarke-Sturman, Dominique Lentchou
Mbiadjeu, Rebecca Neal, Sarah Ayton, and a wide variety of academic and administrative staff on the
course. I hope you find it both instructive and helpful.
Dr Ian Pope
UEA MED Graduate (2012) and Student handbook editor (2012/13)
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How the course is organised
The modules in the MB BS degree and student recommended books
Your first year contains two modules: modules 1 and 2, referred to as M1 and M2. Each subsequent
year has three modules, with the exception of year 4 which now contains four modules as it includes
your external elective. Almost all modules have two components – a UEA one, and a Secondary Care
(hospital) placement. Three exceptions to that are the two elective modules (external and internal
[M15]) and the student assistantship [M14]. During the UEA component you receive lectures,
seminars, Consultation Skills training, PBL and spend one day in a General Practice, consolidating
your learning and developing your clinical skills.
With each module below is a number of student recommended books. Please note that these are
from students and there is a very detailed list of recommended texts provided by the Academic and
clinical staff leading this course. This list is available on Blackboard and you are strongly advised to
also look at that list before purchasing any book in a given subject area. In particular, there are also
recommended texts on: Biochemistry, Immunology, Genetics, Statistics, Public health and
epidemiology, Ethics and Law, Sociology, Psychology and health psychology, Radiology, Geriatrics,
Psychiatry, Primary Care and Consultation Skills.
We recommend that you do not buy any books until you have taken them out of the library and
decide you like their content and style of writing. The library normally has most key texts available so
some people settle for just having a general medicine textbook and then borrowing everything else
as and when they need it. Textbooks are expensive if bought new so don’t forget to look on eBay and
other second hand book shops. (All prices are approximate from Amazon.co.uk, but you can always
try Waterstones which does 3 for 2 on Crash Courses and other books, typically at the start of the
academic year and often at other times.)
Firstly, a list of across-module recommended books:
General medicine textbook



Clinical Medicine (7th Edition) by Kumar & Clark (£46)
Davidson’s Principles and Practice of Medicine (21st Edition) (£43)
Medicine and Surgery: An integrated textbook by Lim and Loke (£47)
General examination book

Macleod’s Clinical Examination 11e (£31)
Anatomy


Gray’s Anatomy for Students (2nd Edition) Drake (£35)
Moore & Dalley Clinically Orientated Anatomy 6e (£60)
Pathology



Pathology (2nd Edition) Stevens & Lowe (£29)
General and Systemic pathology (4th Edition) Underwood (£38)
Flesh and Bones of Pathology: Batemann & Carr (£19)
Pharmacology


Clinical Pharmacology (10th Edition) Bennett & Brown (£50)
Pharmacology (6th Edition) Rang, Dale & Ritter (£37)
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Physiology




Human Physiology – The Basis of Medicine (3rd Edition) Pocock & Richards (£31)
Medical Physiology (Updated Edition 2004) Boron & Boulpaep (£52)
Textbook of Medical Physiology (11th edition) Guyton & Hall (£69)
Flesh and Bones of Medical Cell Biology: Norman & Lodwick (£19)
Psychology
 Psychology for Medicine Ayers & Visser (£26)
 Psychology of Medicine and Surgery: A guide for psychologists, counsellors, nurses and

doctors. Salmon (£38)
Health Psychology: Biopsychosocial Interactions (6th Edition) Sarafino (£42)
Microbiology
 Medical Microbiology 7e: Greenwood
 The Flesh and Bones of Microbiology Guyot, Schelenz & Myint (£19)
 Principles and Practice of Infectious Diseases (7th edition) Mandell, Douglas & Bennett
 Antibiotic and Chemotherapy: Anti-infective agents and their use in therapy (9th edition)
Finch, Greenwood, Whitely & Ragnar Norrby
Revision




PasTest: EMQs for Medical Students Series (£18 each)
PasTest: OSCEs for Medical Students (£18 each)
Specialties: 100 EMQs for Finals (£15)
Lippincott’s Illustrated Review Series [http://www.lww.com/Series/?seriesid=15] (£24-£30)
Year 1
Module 1: The Human Lifecycle: An Holistic Approach
Module 1 is a great introduction into
medicine, taking you on a journey through
the human life-course from conception to
death. Multiple perspectives are brought
to bear on each part of the life-course,
spanning both academic and clinical
approaches, including how academic
disciplines such as the biological and
behavioural sciences are relevant for and can inform clinical practice. The focus of Module 1 is on the
‘big picture’: on how a diverse range of academic disciplines, professions and skills together comprise
the field of medicine.
You will also begin to learn basic clinical skills, what it is like to be a patient and a doctor in primary
and Secondary Care settings, and develop Consultation Skills by talking to patients and health
professionals, as well as learning in a university setting.
The MB BS curriculum is centred on problem-based learning. As part of a group of students you will
cooperate to organize inquiry into clinical cases each week. In Module 1 students develop the
aptitudes necessary to work successfully in a problem-based learning environment which requires
elements of both group-working skills and self-directed learning within a group of peers.
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Module 2: Locomotion
In Module 2, the underlying science behind the locomotion system is
examined, which is used as a basis for exploring the history, examination,
diagnosis and treatment of patients with locomotion
problems.
Students are given the opportunity to see patients with specific
complaints. The focus of the module is musculoskeletal and the aim is to
cover the common and important diseases which affect the musculoskeletal
system eg arthritis, fractures, bone pain and mobility.
During this module, students are taught about interpretation of blood tests and different modalities
of imaging (eg x-ray, MRI and ultrasound) of the various joints and muscles of the body and how
these change in different conditions.
Recommended books:
 Crash Course: Rheumatology and Orthopaedics (2nd edition) Coote and Haslam (£24)
 Apley’s Concise Orthopaedics and Trauma (3rd Edition) (£26)
Year 2
Module 3: Blood and Skin
Module 3 comprises Haematology and Dermatology, or more
succinctly “Blood and Skin”.
In Primary Care, in dermatology you will learn that skin problems
are one of the commonest reasons for consulting a GP. Patients may
present with primary skin disorders or with lesions that may be a
marker of systemic disease. You will learn how to recognise common
skin complaints and organise appropriate investigations and
treatment. You will observe minor surgery in the Primary Care
setting.
In haematology, you will learn the many different ways in which
disorders of the blood and blood-forming organs present to the
GP. You will take a history, perform clinical examination and
interpret the results of laboratory investigations. You will
observe the teamwork involved in caring for those with serious
illness, but will also discover that many patients with blood
disorders require expertise from other disciplines such as
radiology, oncology, gastroenterology, gynaecology and many
more.
http://www.fi.edu/learn/heart/blood/red.html
Recommended books:
 Essential Haematology (5th Edition) Hoffbrand (£30)
 Atlas of Dermatology 5e: Lionel Fry
 Grawkrodger, Dermatology (3rd edition) (Churchill Livingstone)
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Module 4: Circulation
The Circulation module consists of three domains: cardiovascular, cerebrovascular and peripheral
vascular disease domains. Heart and vascular disease is the UK’s biggest killer, but at the same time
we have many tools to prevent and treat circulatory disease. This
module is delivered by three closely related disciplines of Cardiology,
Stroke Medicine/Medicine for the Elderly and Vascular Surgery.
Recommended books:
 ECG Made Easy and ECG In Practice: Hampton (£14/£22)
 Cardiology 8e: Julian & Cowen (£26)
 Illustrated Colour Text – Cardiology (£28)
Module 5: Respiration
Lung diseases cost the NHS more than any other disease area. They are the most common reason for
a GP consultation, cause of chronic childhood illness and cause of cancer mortality. In this module
you will learn how to take a history and examine a patient with lung disease, understand the
pathophysiology, presentation, management and psychosocial impact of common lung diseases, and
gain experience of respiratory related clinical skills.
Recommended books:
 Lecture Notes in Respiratory Medicine (7th Edition) (£24)
 100 Chest X-Ray Problems Corne & Pointon (£18)
 Illustrated Colour Text – Respiratory (£30)
 ABC of Palliative Care (2nd Edition) Fallon & Hanks (£22)
 Treatment and care towards the end of life: good practice in
decision making: GMC
Year 3
Module 6: Homeostasis and Hormones
This module comprises endocrinology, diabetic medicine, renal medicine
and urology. Endocrinology and diabetic medicine encompasses the
concept of hormone homeostasis and the clinical management of patients
with abnormal endocrine function. By the end of the module you will be
able to understand the concept of hormone regulation on growth and
metabolism and recognize presenting features of hormone overproduction
and deficiency and their management. Diabetes medicine highlights the
spectrum of disorders of carbohydrate metabolism and the impact of
diabetes and its complications on personal and social health.
Renal medicine covers the diagnosis and management of patients with acute and chronic renal
disease, and acid/base and fluid/electrolyte regulation. Clinical skills sessions include teaching on
venous cannulation and prescribing fluids. In Urology students learn about the surgical and medical
management of conditions affecting the urinary tract in men and women.
Recommended books:
 Crash course in renal and urinary systems (3rd Edition) Datta (£24)
 High Yield – Kidney: Dudek (£15)
 Crash course Endocrine & Reproductive System (2nd Edition) Sanders (£24)
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Module 7: The Senses
This module is demanding because it contains three linked but
separate specialities: neurology, ophthalmology and ear, nose
and throat (ENT). These specialities are all centred round the
physiological receptors and processes that allow us to sense the
environment in which we live. During this module you will
discover how these three systems work in health and how each
can malfunction in a great variety of diseases.
The brain is considered the most complex of the organs and yet in neurology you will discover how
by careful history taking and examination the site and probable nature of the problem can be pinpointed.
In ophthalmology you will learn of the huge variety of diseases that can affect the eye and
surrounding structures and how modern cataract surgery and laser treatment can restore or preserve
sight for many.
ENT is in itself three separate and yet interrelated specialties, focussing on Ear, Nose and Throat
conditions, each with its own fascination and problems.
Recommended books:
 Neurology & Neurosurgery Illustrated 4e: Lindsay & Bone (£51)
 Clinical Neuroanatomy 4e: FitzGerald & Folan-Curran (£31) 5e
 Ear, Nose & Throat and Head and Neck Surgery: An illustrated colour text (3rd Edition). (£28)
Dhillon & East (£25)
 An Illustrated Colour Atlas of Ophthalmology 2e: Batterbury & Bowling (£64)
 Ophthalmology: an illustrated colour text (3rd Edition) Batterbury, Murphy & Bowling
Churchill Livingstone – Elsevier (ISBN: 9780702030598)
Module 8: Digestion and Nutrition
This module is wide in scope, covering all aspects of digestive disease, in all settings, over all ages.
This encompasses both medical and surgical disease of the gastrointestinal tract. This is a key
opportunity to gain general surgical experience within our course, as well as developing your
gastroenterological knowledge.
Our bodies are amazing and in Module 8 we look at the science behind our
bodily functions. Have you ever wondered how your stomach communicates
with your brain to say it is empty? Or how your bowels tell your brain you
need to find a toilet? Pretty vital stuff! You will also study what happens to
our organs when things go wrong eg how alcohol can damage the liver.
Recommended books:
 Essential Surgery (4th Edition) Burkitt & Quick (£47)
 Abdominal X-Rays Made Easy: Begg (£18)
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Year 4
Module 9: Reproduction
This module covers reproduction and women’s health including breast diseases. Human reproduction
is a fascinating subject. Obstetrics is the branch of medicine and surgery concerned with childbirth
and midwifery. Gynaecology is the science of the physiological functions and diseases of women. You
will appreciate that to understand childbirth and its complications and manage diseases in women at
different stages of their life, it is essential you have a good grasp
of knowledge in basic anatomy and physiology concerning human
reproduction.
Recommended books:
 Clinical Obstetrics & Gynaecology 2e: Magowan, Drife &
Owen (£34)
 Langman’s Medical Embryology 9e (£24)
Module 10: Growth and Development
Module 10 gives the opportunity to learn about child health and disease and to reflect on and revise
previous modules in order to appreciate the similarities and recognise the differences in dealing with
children and their families in a healthcare setting. The spiral,
reflective learning style that is encouraged at Norwich Medical
School is very apparent in Module 10 and students are
encouraged to use knowledge from previous modules to help
them understand the complex nature of child health.
Recommended books:
 Pocket Essentials of Paediatrics (2nd edition) (£25)
 Illustrated Textbook of Paediatrics: Lissauer & Clayden
(£26)
Module 11: The Mind and Body
Module 11 comprises mental health, medicine for the elderly and oncology.
Theoretical learning in the module provides the basis for understanding how
biological, psychological and social factors contribute to mental health
problems. Lectures and seminars cover diagnosis, pharmacological and
psychosocial treatments, and legal and ethical aspects of depression, anxiety,
eating disorders, schizophrenia, learning disabilities, child and adolescent
mental health, medically unexplained symptoms, substance misuse, and old age psychiatry.
Module 11 gives you the opportunity to observe clinicians within primary and Secondary Care
assessing and treating mental health problems. You will also undertake sophisticated mental state
and needs assessments which will provide a real opportunity to contribute to the delivery of care.
This module now contains a component covering Medicine for the elderly and oncology. Both are
integrated in to our course throughout previous modules; so this two week period allows you to
consolidate your knowledge and have dedicated placement time in these two specialities.
Recommended books: Psychiatry: Neel Burnton (£27.54)
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Module 12: The External Elective
The elective is a 4 to 8 week, work-based placement that is undertaken by all
students at the end of the 4th year. Unlike other modules it is selected and
organised by the student with minimal input from the School. However, the
placement chosen has to be approved by an Elective Tutor.
The placement can be in any aspect of medicine and can be held anywhere in
the world as long as the choice does not endanger your life. During this period
you are expected to engage in self directed learning, reflect on your
professional development, and experience medical practice in a context that is
different from that provided by the Medical School and its teaching hospitals.
There will be lectures on how to prepare for an elective, how to stay healthy
during the placement and trends in global public health.
Year 5
Module 13: Emergency Care
This module is designed to inform and instruct you in the
management of the acutely sick patient and includes accident and
emergency, as well as emergency medicine and surgery.
For those who are craving excitement, Module 13 is the place where
you get hands-on practice dealing with acutely ill patients. It is a
high-octane journey through the Emergency Department, the Acute
Admissions Unit, Intensive Care and Anaesthetic rooms. Here you
will learn how to deal with a wide range of really sick people in the quickest and most efficient way
possible, and witness important, potentially life-saving procedures. You will also find out how to
calmly and safely put someone to sleep for a procedure, and then ensure a speedy recovery.
Module 14: Student Assistantship
Lectures and seminars are incorporated in a three week introductory period at the start of year 5.
These cover practical aspects of becoming a junior doctor eg how to request investigations, certify
death and write in the medical record.
You will complete nine weeks of clinical placements working within both medical and surgical teams
in an apprentice-like style. During these 9 weeks there are only a handful of timetabled small group
tutorials and you are therefore free to participate fully in ward work, and to help your clinical team
wherever possible with day to day clinical activity.
Assessment – during module 14 we utilise 3 types of workplace based assessments alongside the
standard OSCE assessment (which in this case is combined with M13), these are:
 Tutor report forms (one medical one surgical),
 Case Based Discussions (one medical and one surgical) and
 Procedural skills logbook (to demonstrate competency to perform simple and common
procedures eg venepuncture in the workplace setting with real patients).
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Module 15: The Internal Elective
This new module follows your Final Clinical exams. You end the course with an opportunity to study
one area of medicine within the UK in detail either as a student assistant akin to Module 14, or to
undertake a period of research activity.
Themes
Within each module you will find the works falls into a series of neat groups, Anatomy being the
easiest to recognise, these are called the ‘themes’. Each theme will appear in every module, and
often you will notice overlap. So for instance, the anatomy of the chest appears in modules blood,
circulation, respiration, digestion (modules 3, 4, 5 & 8).
For most themes (eg pathology) in the early part of the course you learn and understand basic
concepts of normality, health and disease. Understanding of these core concepts is essential to the
study of all modules and over the course you will add to the knowledge and refine your
understanding as you revisit topics. This is called spiral learning, and is an important part of our
course. By calling upon your understanding and application of concepts from earlier parts of the
course you will be able to deal effectively with unfamiliar topics and apply the knowledge to
diagnosis and treatment.
The themes have formal theme leads who supervise the curriculum within their area. By-and-large
these leads also organise the SSS studies in their theme, though they may have sub-leads for each
year.
The full list of themes is:
Anatomy; biochemistry; clinical skills; diet and health; epidemiology and public health; ethics;
genetics; health economics; immunology; law; microbiology; pathology; pharmacology (including
pharmacy and prescribing skills); physiology; professionalism; psychology; scientific methods and
sociology.
In your SSS studies you will be attached to a particular theme and develop your knowledge and
understanding by studying that subject in more depth.
Term dates
Please be aware, the term dates for the MB BS do not always follow the standard University term
dates.
The term dates for year 1 for 2013/2014 are as follows:
Monday 16 September 2013 – Friday 13 December 2013 – Module 1
Monday 16 December – Friday 10 January 2014 – Christmas holidays
Monday 13 January 2014 – Thursday 23 January 2014 – Module 1 continued
Friday 24 January 2014 – Friday 4 April – Module 2
Monday 7 April 2014 – Friday 25th April 2014 – Easter holidays
Monday 28 April 2014 – Friday 30 May 2014 – Module 2 continued
Monday 2 June 2014 – Friday 13 June 2014 – Integrative (exam) period
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Outcome of the course
At the end of the undergraduate course you will receive your MB ChB degree, which is a primary
medical qualification (PMQ). Holding a PMQ entitles you to provisional registration with the General
Medical Council. Provisionally registered doctors can only practise in approved Foundation Year 1
posts: the law does not allow provisionally registered doctors to undertake any other type of work.
To obtain a Foundation Year 1 post you will need to apply during the final year of your undergraduate
course through the UK Foundation Programme Office selection scheme, which allocates these posts
to graduates on a competitive basis. So far, all suitably qualified UK graduates have found a place on
the Foundation Year 1 programme, but this cannot be guaranteed, for instance if there were to be an
excessive number of competitive applications from non-UK graduates.
Successful completion of the Foundation Year 1 programme is normally achieved within 12 months
and is marked by the award of a Certificate of Experience. You will then be eligible to apply for full
registration with the General Medical Council. You need full registration with a licence to practise for
unsupervised medical practice in the NHS or private practice in the UK.
How you will be taught
Problem Based Learning (PBL)
Problem based Learning is one of many learning opportunities at Norwich Medical School.
You may, at first, feel that learning medicine is quite difficult. It may be in some ways different to the
learning you have done before. One thing students often struggle with is that there is a huge amount
of information available and you may feel quite overwhelmed. An additional problem is that because
medical research is continually published, information can change. To complicate matters further,
sometimes medical opinion is divided on a particular issue and there can be more than one right
answer. Over time you will come to accept that this is part of the nature of medical knowledge.
Studying medicine is a life-long learning experience – there will always be something new to learn.
PBL tutorials offer an opportunity for you to discuss clinical cases with your colleagues, research the
medical literature, share knowledge, and learn from each other. Doctors learn in this way on a daily
basis in the work environment as well as at conferences. In PBL, you will be expected to work to a
high standard and develop professional attitudes towards your work and colleagues.
Each PBL tutorial group stays together for one academic year. PBL groups consist of 10 students and a
facilitator or tutor.
The PBL process is split into 3 main phases:
1) Discussion of a clinical case and sharing of existing knowledge, identification of knowledge
gaps.
2) Independent study to fill the gaps, and further sharing of resources and information usually
on line.
3) Further discussion of case and sharing of information in light of new knowledge.
17
After in initial discussion of a clinical case and sharing of your existing knowledge, you will find there
are knowledge gaps and so you will identify areas for further study. During the following week you
will be expected to research and learn these topics. You will attend lectures, seminars, and clinical
attachments and of course be expected to do a lot of reading. If you make sure you have a sound
understanding of all topics you will gain more from the follow up discussion with your colleagues and
learn more.
You may, to begin with, find it very difficult to identify the resources that you need for PBL. Being
able to identify and evaluate information is a vital skill for a 21 century doctor but, as with many
other skills, it will take time to develop. Through repeated practice in PBL you will become proficient
at searching and critically evaluating medical literature.
In the following week’s PBL session, all students should explain their new knowledge to the group,
via a presentation or other teaching method. You should discuss the case again in light of new
knowledge. By the end of the week you should have reached a point where you have acquired a new
raft of knowledge, be able to explain it to others, and have integrated it with your existing
knowledge.
To get the most out of these sessions you need to be able to work with a range of other students, be
a good communicator and also be able to work independently. You need to be able to research a
topic thoroughly and discriminate between differing qualities of information. You need good writing
skills, including grammar and presentation, and you need to be prepared to stand up in front of
people (albeit a small group), to explain your subject and answer questions from the group and tutor.
You will develop critical thinking abilities, clinical reasoning capabilities, teaching and presentation
skills, teamwork skills and of course will acquire an enormous amount of medical knowledge and
understanding. These attributes will set you in good standing for life as a doctor.
The PBL tutor’s role is to guide and facilitate the group’s learning rather than to teach. The tutor will
not be a subject expert on the case so will not be able to provide answers.
18
Lectures and Seminars
Lectures and seminars are 50 minute teaching sessions that are provided by academics from within
the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences and by senior clinicians from the surrounding general
practice and hospitals.
Most lectures are delivered to the whole cohort studying a particular module while most seminars
are delivered to fewer students. A selection of seminars run in parallel for a given timetable slot
during Module 1. This means that you may sometimes have to select which seminar to attend; your
choice may be governed by agreements made within your PBL group about which learning objectives
you will be reporting back at the end of the week.
In general, lectures are the most didactic of our teaching sessions. Seminars can be didactic too and
certainly provide information from experts that will help you to understand key topics within the PBL
presentations; however seminars are often interactive, with opportunities for student questions and
learning exercises.
You will find electronic resources to support these teaching sessions in folders on Blackboard. These
include PowerPoint files, MP3s and PDFs that summarise the main points. The documents often give
you a reading list to accompany the lecture or seminar. These reading lists should certainly guide
your background reading because they have been carefully selected to provide you with appropriate
depth and detail.
Lectures and seminars cover many aspects of the curriculum including: Clinical sciences,
Psychological sciences, Biological sciences, Public health, Social sciences, Consultation Skills, and
Research methods. The latter are often timetabled at different times to other seminars/lectures but
are nevertheless core to our teaching programme. You will find that research methods seminars are
given in parallel – with the same teaching provided by different tutors across a number of different
rooms. This allows for small group discussion of worked examples.
The following tips will help you to enjoy and make the most of these valuable teaching sessions.
 Be well prepared by planning your week and regularly checking times and venues on your
personalised timetable, available to view on the Portal
 Arrive promptly to each session
 Have a look at the resources on Blackboard relating to each lecture and seminar prior to the
date it is given
 Check Blackboard for reading lists and keep up to date with background reading each week
(complete this in advance of teaching session where indicated/appropriate – this is
particularly important before most Consultation Skills sessions)
 Always take advantage of these teaching sessions by asking questions or seeking clarification
at appropriate times
Research Methods and Clinical Audit
This course provides an introduction to key ideas and methods in medical research. We aim to
provide the skills to allow you to competently engage in our Student Selected Studies (eg to search
and appraise medical literature) and to prepare for writing a research protocol in year 3, and conduct
a clinical audit in year 4. Research Methods sessions also provide skills needed to complete Analytical
Reviews (see assessment). We also want to prepare those of you who are interested in medical
research to undertake this, either alongside your studies (eg in your summer holiday or within the
elective periods), as a formal intercalated Masters programme (ie as a year out of your medical
studies), or as a future doctor.
19
More generally, we aim to allow you to:
(i) interpret medical research for yourself, your colleagues and for patients
(ii) apply evidence-based medicine in your practice, and
(iii) undertake research and clinical audit
The course will deal with the notion of uncertainty in medicine, including communicating risk to
patients, understanding uncertainty in research results and in our medical knowledge base. Various
research study designs will be considered (including clinical trials, epidemiological studies and
qualitative studies) along with data analysis and interpretation.
These sessions will be a mixture of didactic, full-group lectures, smaller group seminars, and selfstudy of materials placed on Blackboard. Typically, interactive seminars will be used to reinforce
learning from previous lectures and the self-study material. There is an expectation of students to
pursue ideas and understanding further through their own reading.
In years 1 and 2, these sessions are designed to support your preparation for our analytical review
(AR) assessment. This assessment is a critical appraisal of a published article reporting a medical
research study selected by the Research Methods team. The AR is usually in the form of a series of
short answer questions and has to be submitted at the end of each module for modules 1 to 4 in
years 1 and 2. Articles selected for appraisal will reflect the extent of knowledge and skills expected
at that stage of the course.
In your first module of year 1 the AR is a compulsory formative assessment. By formative we mean
that your work must be submitted, and you must participate in any feedback sessions, but your mark
will not affect your progression that year. All other analytical reviews are summative. By this we
mean that your work is formally marked, and you must gain at least a Pass to progress to the next
year of the course.
In year 3, the Research Methods sessions are designed to support your writing of a Research Project
protocol and, in year 4, to carry out a Clinical Audit.
Student Selected Studies (SSS)
Throughout the MBBS, there are Student Selected Studies (SSS) components which cover a variety of
subjects and disciplines. SSS is the part of our course where you will develop academic skills such as
literature review and critical thinking; presentation and teaching skills; and develop a clinical or
research question. In years 1 to 3 these skills are acquired whilst focusing on topics from a specific
theme of study, such as anatomy, epidemiology or sociology. In year 4 the focus shifts to you
undertaking an evidence-based case presentation.
SSS sign up
In years 1 to 3 you will be asked to identify 3 or 4 SSS themes of interest to you, using an online sign
up system. There will be a specific deadline published for SSS sign up each academic year.
You will then be randomly allocated to one of your chosen themes and will be introduced to an
appropriate tutor for the academic year. You will then choose one or more learning outcomes from
the theme lists to generate your SSS question in consultation with your tutor.
The system for anatomy SSS in years 2 and 3 is different, and organised by the anatomy team; you
would usually sign up for these in the previous academic year of study.
20
Selecting an SSS Theme in years 1 to 3
You need to select at least one life/clinical science and one social/population science (please see the
list below) in the first 3 years. Some of these SSS theme options include practical, clinical or
laboratory experience; others are literature based studies. Please see the theme-specific descriptions
posted on Blackboard for detailed information that should help you select the SSS themes of interest
to you in this academic year.
SSS in year 4
You do not need to sign up to pre-specified themes of study in year 4.
There are two learning objectives for this SSS:
1. Present a full clinical case from your module of study.
2. Present published evidence about the aetiology or diagnosis or treatment or prognosis of
that patient’s condition; include a critical appraisal of two or three primary studies/metaanalyses.
You can independently study any aspect of the year 4 curriculum that fits with your selected clinical
case. There will be tutor and e-learning support available for year 4 students.
Table 1: SSS Themes 2013/14
Some themes are specific to particular academic years. The availability of each theme is indicated by
the filled (blue and red) boxes in the table below.
SSS Theme
Year 1
Life Sciences and Clinical Sciences
Anatomy
Biochemistry
Clinical Biochemistry
Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics
Colorectal Surgery
Diet and Health
Genetics
Microbiology and Immunology
Pathology
Physiology
Plastic Surgery
Radiology
SSS as a pathway to research
Social and Population Sciences
Epidemiology and Public Health
Ethics
Health Economics
Law
Psychology
Sociology
Year 2
Year 3
21
Consultation Skills
Learning to listen, and talk to patients and colleagues is one of the most important skills a doctor
must acquire. We all know how to listen and to talk, but we rarely have the opportunity to consider
in depth how our individual style of communicating influence the people we talk with. The term
‘communication skills’ in medicine is used to indicate a range of evidence based behaviours which are
known to impact on a consultation with an individual patient seeking advice, or a discussion with a
colleague. In the MB BS programme we consider that the conduct of the consultation is the
fundamental process of all medical practice and we have adopted the structure and skills-based
model known as the Calgary Cambridge Model devised by Silverman, Draper and Kurtz to guide our
understanding and teaching. This model is patient-centred and proposes that the consultation should
address both the biological-physical aspects of a patient’s presentation, which we call ‘disease’, and
the psychological and social aspects, which we call ‘illness’.
Over the five years you will learn a range of different skills, which not only enhance the likelihood of
a favourable outcome to the consultation, but can also be applied to communication in other
situations, such as referring patients to colleagues or talking to relatives or other carers. When you
graduate, we want you to be competent in a number of areas including the following:
- establishing and maintaining trusting, respectful relationships
- listening to patients, relatives/carers/partners, and to other healthcare professionals
- explaining, and providing patients and others with well-timed and understandable
information
- negotiating mutually acceptable outcomes
- recording, storing and managing clinical information
- presenting information clearly in written, electronic and oral forms, and communicating
ideas and arguments effectively.
From the very beginning of your course of study, you will start to work toward these objectives. You
will have opportunities to role-play, discuss and experience different Consultation Skills techniques,
and to identify and reflect upon your own style and learning needs.
Interprofessional Education & Learning (IPL)
“Interprofessional Education occurs when two or more professions learn with, from and about each
other to improve collaboration and the quality of care”
(Centre for the Advancement of Interprofessional Education, 2002)
All doctors work in teams with many other health and social care professionals. Thus, the principal
aim of our interprofessional learning (IPL) programme is to improve your ability to work with others
effectively, by developing your knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours. You will learn about the
roles of other professions and how you will collaborate to provide patient care; you will also learn
about the benefits and constraints associated with interprofessional team working.
The IPL programme provides students across health and social care courses at UEA with unique
opportunities to work together at every level of their training.
IPL1-2 (First and Second Years)
Teamwork session: In their first year, healthcare students attend a two-hour session designed to
demonstrate both effective and ineffective team-working.
22
Exploration of own team role and personality style: In relation to the teamwork session (either
before or after), students will be required to investigate their own personality style and preferred
role within a team by completing confidential, on-line assessment(s).
Interactive learning tool: Students view on-line interviews with health and social care professionals
to find out more about the roles of each profession and how they interact.
Reflective assignment: The written assignment for IPL1 is a reflection on what students have learnt
from the different aspects of IPL1. As part of this reflection students will describe their on-going
learning needs as future collaborative practitioners.
Shadowing: Prior to the second level of IPL (IPL2) medical students will shadow a health or social
care professional, in the hospital or practice setting. Further details, about how to go about this, will
be available during your first year.
IPL continues in year 2 (IPL2) and involves two workshop activities either focusing on the
enhancement of an individual care pathway, or the improvement of the delivery of a specific service.
IPL3-4
IPL3 (year 3) is an optional one day interactive inter-professional conference, whilst IPL4 (year 3-5),
also optional, comprises two half-day, workshops based around a topic (eg domestic abuse,
substance misuse, eating disorders). In addition, all year 4 students now undertake two interactive
learning events with pharmacists and nurses which consolidate their clinical skills and teamwork.
Primary Care
The teaching in Primary Care consistently receives very positive evaluations from students. There are
two main reasons for this.
Our doctors: we have a group of enthusiastic general practitioners who are committed to teaching;
have protected time to do the job; are trained to teach the undergraduate curriculum; and are
supported by a team of practice development tutors.
Patients: we have hundreds of patients who are very willing to talk to students and be examined by
them. Their evaluations of contact with our students are almost invariably positive.
Some examples of what you do in Primary Care:
Practicing taking Blood Pressure
Measurements
Learning and practicing the
musculoskeletal examination
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What do we want you to learn?
The overall Primary Care learning outcomes will be available as part of the wider collection of
learning outcomes, but essentially the placement in Primary Care is about learning medicine in a
community setting. It is not about teaching you to be a GP, nor about persuading you that general
practice is more attractive than any other medical career.
We want you to understand what it is like to be a patient/doctor and recognise the presentation of
illness in the community. You will learn about the diagnosis of disease in patients presenting for the
first time. You should become familiar with effects of chronic illness on the patient and their family,
the relationship between medical, psychological and social factors in illness. There will be
opportunities to understand how the primary health care team works, the relationship between
Primary and Secondary Care and the relationship between health care and social services.
Primary Care is an excellent setting in which to acquire some of the skills of a doctor. Patients in
Primary Care do not generally mind being “guinea pigs” , and you should have many opportunities to
practice talking to patients and examining them, dealing with common medical, social and
psychological problems, and multidisciplinary working and education. You will be able to rehearse
how to give accurate information, enable patients to play a role in their own care, and assist their
decision making. There will be opportunities for receiving and giving of feedback on interactions with
patients.
By working in groups and observing practice teams we expect you to develop the professional
attitudes necessary for carrying out the duties of a doctor, for self-directed learning, professional and
personal development and self-care.
How are you going to learn it?
Each week your GP Tutor will recruit suitable patients for you to interview and examine. Some of
these will be selected to reflect the week’s learning outcomes; some may be deliberately “random”
to test your developing clinical reasoning! Patients are a valuable opportunity to practice and hone
your skills, and in general you should find these contacts very rewarding. Patients are almost
invariably pleased to be invited to participate.
As in PBL, it is important that you engage in the group, agree objectives and that you share, reflect,
interpret and integrate your experiences and information.
Feedback and Concerns
Your GP Tutor should regularly ask for feedback about how the teaching is going. This will be both
informal as you go along, but we also expect GP Tutors to collect formal evaluations at the end of the
day. Most tutors choose to use a standard template that we provide. Please give honest and
constructive feedback so that our tutors can improve the experience, for you and for the students
who follow you.
From time to time you might experience things that you may find uncomfortable, either for yourself
or on behalf of patients, or which you feel to be unsafe, morally wrong or inappropriate. If you have
problems in primary care, your first contact should be your tutor there. Many of the things which
may disturb or distress you may simply arise from not knowing the full picture, and a frank and
friendly conversation with your Tutor may well help.
24
However if you are unable to resolve the issue in the practice you can contact the Practice
Development Tutor (responsible for overseeing teaching in Primary Care) for your year, as follows:
Year 1
Year 2
Year 3
Year 4
Year 5
Dr David Barton: [email protected]
Dr Charlotte Turner: [email protected]
Dr Hannah Innes: [email protected]
Dr Jane Calne: [email protected]
Dr Lisa Jackson: [email protected]
Or (in the case of absence of the relevant year PDT) the Lead Practice Development Tutor Dr Richard
Young: [email protected]
Final message: like many other aspects of the course, what you will get out depends on what you put
in. You will maximise your learning in Primary Care if you:
 Come prepared- making sure you know enough of the scientific basis (anatomy, physiology,
pathology etc) of the cases you are going to see
 Talk to and examine the patients – that is the main reason you are there
 Build your understanding around the patients you see – so if you don’t understand
something, ask or look it up. We know that doctors remember best from the real cases that
they have seen.
Secondary Care
Your Secondary Care placement is usually at the end of each module. During placement you will be
based in one or more hospitals and will not have UEA lectures or seminars. Secondary Care time is
spent in the hospital environment. It is a great chance not only to learn lots of useful bits of medicine
but also to find out how hospitals work and what different people do.
There will be a variety of different learning opportunities with the volume and type varying according
to the speciality and the hospital. Broadly there will be 3 types of timetabled teaching held in the
teaching resource areas including;
 Structured patient teaching sessions – similar to the model used in Primary Care. Patients
(usually outpatients but occasionally inpatients) are invited to attend a session whose sole
aim is educational. Under the direction of a clinicians you will talk to, examine or review the
notes and investigations of patients with selected illnesses
 Clinical skills sessions – teaching on examination or procedural skills, often practising on
each other or on models
 Seminars – small group teaching on clinical topics
You will also be timetabled to attend various clinical sessions that are of educational benefit but
where your role will be more observational and education is not the main aim. These are called
Booked Sessions and are an important complement to your directly taught sessions. In these, you
will pick up a lot of ‘informal’ learning about each speciality. Examples include going to outpatients,
endoscopy, theatre, or following a specialist nurse, physiotherapist or a consultant ward round. Do
not underestimate the importance of these sessions to your medical education.
For Secondary Care, always sign the register. Those who arrive too late to sign MUST notify Jane
Nicholls (see p26), or it will be marked as an absence.
25
Despite all these timetabled activities there will be ‘gaps’ and the key to making the most of
Secondary Care is to be enthusiastic and proactive in finding additional opportunities, for example:
 Ask to shadow a junior doctor for part of their shift
 Ask if you can join an evening ward round
 Observe a patient’s journey through the hospital (from admission to discharge)
If you want to know if there are any other opportunities offered within each block of Secondary Care
ask your supervising Consultant (in Module 1 you do not have a supervising Consultant so ask the
Consultant you are with each day). You will also be given a Secondary Care Handbook which will act
as a guide to which activities you should be undertaking whilst on placement.
Always take the opportunity to go to clerk patients (a full examination is called a ‘clerking’) on the
ward(s) you are attached to whenever you have free-time. This is a key part of your learning in every
module and will pay dividends in exams. Many patients will be grateful to have someone to talk to
and will often give you information about their condition that you won’t find in a textbook. However,
always remember to ask the nurse in charge of the patient if it is alright for you to talk to them and
ensure you get the patient’s consent.
The more effort you put in when you are on placement the more opportunities you will receive, and
the more enjoyment you will gain, as well as undoubtedly learning invaluable skills.
Clinical concerns
You may very occasionally encounter events during your clinical training that upset you, or which you
feel uncomfortable about in some respect. You should seek guidance from the clinician you are with
at the time, or another clinician later about your concerns. You may also seek guidance from your
adviser, Head of Year (for year 1 that is Dr Dominique Hubble) or the Course Director (Professor
Richard Holland: [email protected]), if you feel that there is a specific concern that you are unclear
who else to raise it with.
Clinical Skills
Clinical Skills are at the heart of your medical training, they are the tools that you must master in
order to practise effectively as a doctor. There are many types of clinical skills including:
 Consultation Skills (see section below)
 Examination skills (eg how to listen to and interpret a heart murmur)
 Procedural skills (eg how to take blood samples or insert a urinary catheter)
 Emergency management skills (eg resuscitation techniques)
 Prescribing skills (eg writing an appropriate drug or fluid prescription)
 Investigative skills (eg interpreting x-rays, blood or lung function tests)
 Clinical reasoning (eg discussing possible diagnoses and management options based on
available evidence)
 Organisational, learning, teaching, team-working skills etc.
Your clinical skills teaching is integrated into each module (eg you will learn how to examine chests
and prescribe oxygen during your respiratory module) and is mainly provided by the specialist
members of each module team, as well as in Primary Care sessions. The clinical skills curriculum
documents the learning outcomes for each part of the course but you should take any opportunity to
practise and refine your skills as and when it arises. We start teaching skills early on but the spiral
curriculum means that you will revisit and refine skills in future teaching and assessment.
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You are fortunate to have sole access to a state of the art Clinical Skills Resource Area (CSRA) situated
in the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH). There are also facilities at our partner
teaching hospitals (James Paget University Hospital [JPUH] in Great Yarmouth, Queen Elizabeth
Hospital [QEH] in King’s Lynn, and Ipswich Hospital). There is 24-hour-a-day open access laboratory
area at the CSRA which allows you to use the equipment for self-directed practice in your own time.
Please see Blackboard for our Clinical Skills 24hr Access Protocol.
Dr Lesley Bowker is the Clinical Skills Director – she is a Consultant Physician based at the NNUH who
oversees clinical skills teaching and OSCE assessment for the MB BS. There are three clinical skills
coordinators based at the NNUH – Richard Wharton (a GI surgeon), Medha Sule (an Obstetrician and
Gynaecologist) and Mike Lambert (revision support for year 5 re-sit students). Other staff at the CSRA
include a clinical skills senior nurse (Barbara Spooner), Senior Technical Manager (Chris Bligh),
Secondary Care Coordinator (Jane Nicholls), three administrators (Rebecca Ogden, Louise Terrington
and Jacqui Empson-High) and one admin assistant (TBA).
James Paget University Hospital’s (JPUH) clinical skills’ teaching is overseen by Stephen Nirmal (a
consultant paediatrician). Clinical skills teaching is delivered by Louise Barfield, the administrators are
Carol Beamish and Linda Turner and admin/technical support is provided by Stacey Smith. Queen
Elizabeth Hospital’s (QEH) clinical skills’ teaching is overseen by Dr R Mathialagan (a consultant
physician). Clinical skills are delivered by Dawn Bould, and our administrator is Helen Bensley.
Ipswich Hospital clinical skills teaching is overseen by Kay Wilson, and the administrator is Sue
Holroyd.
Dress code for Clinical Placement (Primary and Secondary Care)
The practice of clinical medicine relies on mutual respect and confidence. Your appearance will affect
your working relationship with patients and fellow professionals, and may also have infection control
implications. Therefore, in general, your clothing should be smart and clean at all times whilst you
are in the hospital or in GP surgery. We recommend you wear the sort of clothes you would wear to
an interview and have the appearance that you would expect from others who are treating your
parents or loved ones.
The following guidance is in line with the Hospital Dress Code used for doctors in all the teaching
Trusts. It would also generally apply in Primary Care, with the exception of the ‘bare below the
elbow’ policy
No
-
Jewellery on the hands or wrists other than a wedding band
Facial or tongue piercings other than simple earrings (ie no dangling earrings)
Shirts with brand logos, names or eclectic patterns
Denim of any kind
‘Rainbow-coloured’ hair
Dirty hands, nails or poor general hygiene
Men
-
A clean open neck shirt either short sleeved or with the sleeves rolled up to above the elbow
and one top button undone. If cotton/creased please ensure it is also ironed
Smart trousers (suit trousers or Chinos)
Smart shoes (leather or similar)
If you have long hair this should be tied back
Clean shaven or well kept beard. Avoid ‘designer stubble’
27
No
- Ties (except Bow ties)
- Wrists watches
- Jewellery other than a wedding band
- Jeans
- T-shirts
- Trainers
- Suit jacket
Women
- A high cut blouse or smart top with short sleeves or sleeves that can easily be rolled up to
the level of the elbow
- In winter, a jumper may be worn as long as you still maintain the ‘bare below the elbow’ rule
- Trousers or a skirt that comes to 8cm above the knee or below
- Sensible smart shoes
- If you have long hair this should be tied back
No
-
Short skirts
Low cut or tight tops (no cleavage on display)
Exposed midriff (check that short tops do not leave you exposed when you stoop (get a
friend to check what happens when you lean over a bed as if you were examining a patient)
Excessive makeup or nail polish
‘Ugg’ style boots, trainers, flip-flops, open toed shoes, Stilettos or high heels
Some Examples:
SUITABLE
Chino trousers
Clean, ironed shirt
which is rolled up
to above the
elbow
Smart leather
shoes
-
-
SUITABLE
Long hair is tied
back
Short sleeved
shirt and jumper,
obeying the bare
below the elbow
code
Smart black
trousers
Smart shoes
-
-
UNSUITABLE
-
-
Jeans
Shirt not
tucked in
Jumper not
obeying the
bare below the
elbow code
Wearing a
watch
UNSUITABLE
-
-
Skirt is more than
8cm above the
knee
Shirt is low cut
and see-through
Not bare below
the elbow
Wearing dangling
earrings
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Primary Care and OSCE Examinations
You are expected to follow the same dress code as Secondary Care, but remember you will be
involved in interacting with patients (including manual handling) so bear this in mind and make sure
the clothes you are wearing are comfortable and don’t restrict your movement.
Portfolio and reflective practice
A portfolio is a journal or a private collection of personal experiences and memories which you are
expected to collect during this course. It is an important component of your professional
development as it forms the basis for self-directed learning and reflective practice. Reflective practice
was defined by Donald Schӧn, its originator as “the capacity to reflect on action so as to engage in a
process of continuous learning”. By writing a journal you will be thinking and processing your
experiences or ‘reflecting’ on them, thereby enabling you to take a deeper approach to your learning
and development and heightening your levels of critical evaluation and self-awareness.
Developing skills in reflective practice during the course is an important part of your professional
development and will be useful to you in your future medical career since this is the model used
both in the Foundation Programme (Year 1-2 after you have qualified) and the GMC’s Revalidation
process. The portfolio will also help you to provide examples or ‘evidence’ for your portfolio report,
an annual summative assessment (see assessment section). This report takes the form of an essay
question based on various themes relating to professionalism. It is usually based on the GMC’s
document “Good Medical Practice”.
In order to develop an effective portfolio it is suggested that you spend a minimum of 15 minutes per
week creating a written record of memorable experiences. These may be derived from any part of
the course but you will find that clinical placements provide a particularly rich source of appropriate
material. You should also write some commentary on the contents of your student held record of
assessments and any other feedback that you have received. During your course you will have the
opportunity to collect feedback from various sources such as tutors, patients, actors and student
colleagues. You should use your portfolio to explore how you are setting, progressing and achieving
goals appropriate to your current and future professional practice.
When writing your portfolio start by describing the experience as a succinct anonymised summary;
then go on to consider the following if appropriate:
 How did it make you feel?
 Why do you think it happened? – Try to see this from different aspects/points of view.
 What effect did it have? What was the effect on patients / team / organisation?
 What long term consequences might this have?
 On further reflection what have you learnt?
 How will this experience help you to progress?
 Which goals will you set yourself and how will you achieve them?
 What does the GMC say about this?
 What further reading will help you to expand on this topic?
Remember that the portfolio is a private record so it will not be directly viewed by anyone else so it
cannot be wrong; just write whatever is in your mind at the time without regard to grammar,
punctuation or spelling. If you are limited for time write a brief description of the event including
your thoughts and return to it at a later date. If you can also make a note of any themes or index
these experiences, it will help you when you return to your journal to select examples to illustrate
the end of year portfolio report. The questions for the portfolio reports are issued at the start of the
academic year so you will know in advance which experiences you might want to explore in more
depth as you go through the year.
29
Studies Allied to Medicine (SAM)/Studies Outside Medicine (SOM)
Studies Allied to Medicine/ Studies Outside Medicine is a programme designed to offer our medical
students the opportunity to study something a little different from most of their professional studies.
Ideally it should stretch your mind and develop your skills in critical analysis and expression. In
addition, given the range of modules on offer, we hope that every student can find a subject that
interests them.
This module is moving from being delivered in year 4 due to changes in year 4’s structure. It is likely
to be delivered, for you, immediately after your Final exam, though it is possible that those wishing
to study a language may be able to do that in year 3 or 4. In addition to several language options, our
options have included topics such as counselling, creative writing, and archaeology. These vary each
year, depending on the availability of tutors. Most comprise twenty classroom hours. There is no
summative assessment, but it is attendance based with an expectation that you attend at least 80%
of classes. Those not attending 80% complete a summative based piece of coursework.
How you will be assessed
All assessments in Module 1 are formative. Formative assessments are for your learning – so you can
see how you are doing, but also so you can learn how we assess you. You must fully complete the
assessment, but a grade of fail will not require reassessment or stop you progressing to the following
year. We would still encourage you to take these assessments seriously, learning for them in the
same way as you would any other exam that you have ever taken.
Almost all of our other assessments are summative; this means that you do need to pass the
assessment before you are allowed to progress to the following year. Note: we will inform you if
assessments are ever formative, otherwise please expect them to be summative.
We have the following types of assessment which are described in more detail below:
 Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs)
 End of year written examination
 Student selected study assessments (SSS)
 Portfolio reports
 Research methods assessments including: analytical review, research protocol, and an audit
project
In addition, each module your PBL tutor and Primary Care (GP) tutor will each complete a tutor
report on your progress with them for that module.
Objective Structured Clinical Exam (OSCE)
At the end of each Module your clinical skills will be tested in approximately 6 clinical stations related
to that module. The format of each station will vary, but might include:
 taking part of a patient’s history (eg taking a history from a person who has fallen over)
 examining one or more aspects of a patient (eg examining a patient’s knee)
 interpreting an investigation (eg looking at an X-ray of the arm)
 performing a practical or clinical skill (eg taking blood pressure)
 formulating a management plan and discussing with a patient (eg discussing insulin with a
newly diagnosed diabetic)
 assessment of your clinical knowledge on cases that you have seen and presented in your
clinical logbook (so-called ‘logbook station’)
30
Most OSCE stations are of 5 minutes duration, but some are 11 minutes long. In most stations there
will be a single examiner and, depending on which station it is, there might be a patient or actor
present. In certain years there may be more than one actor. Occasionally there will be an observer, or
external examiner present.
In the end of year OSCE (Years 1-4), the clinical skills you have acquired in all the previous Modules, in
that year as well as all previous years, will be tested in an OSCE of approximately 8 clinical stations. The
format is slightly different to the end of module OSCEs with more 11 minute stations and linked
stations (two different tasks for the same clinical scenario); as well as stations with content from any
year to date (rather than just one particular module). We are more likely to use real patients (rather
than volunteer ‘normal’ or models) in the end of year OSCEs. There is no logbook assessment station in
the end of year OSCE.
Please note that your final OSCE grade for the year is calculated by adding all your end of module
OSCE results plus your end of year OSCE results together. In effect this means that you perform one
long ‘staged’ OSCE throughout the year. To pass, you must achieve the overall pass mark and have
passed at least 70% of all OSCE stations that you have taken that year.
More on this topic can be found on Blackboard.
Logbooks
The UEA uses Logbooks to encourage patient-based, self-directed study of clinical medicine which is a
life-long habit that should continue throughout your whole medical career. This tool fits well into a
fully integrated course and it should help you to integrate your basic science learning with the clinical
medicine. We hope you will see as many patients as possible during your clinical placements and use
them to learn at appropriate breadth and depth for each module. As you complete your logbook you
are effectively building your own textbook based on personal experience.
Ideally, you should take a full history, and perform a full examination (a so-called ‘clerking’), for every
patient you enter in your logbook. Obviously in year 1 you will not be able to do this, but as you go
through each module your ‘clerkings’ will become more comprehensive. Some diagnoses are
relatively uncommon and you may not see a suitable patient for a one-to-one interview during your
clinical attachments. In these cases, it is acceptable to record cases that are presented at your
structured patient teaching sessions. However you must not present ‘paper’ cases that you have
not seen or that you have ‘borrowed’ from a colleague. You must write up your cases separately
from your colleagues even if you see the same patient.
Confidentiality is a vital part of medical practice and therefore you must not record anything in your
logbook that could identify the patient – this includes their name, date of birth, address or
hospital/unit numbers. For reasons of confidentiality and fairness of assessment you may NOT
include patients who are friends or family. In order to verify that you have actually seen the patient
you must collect a signature at the time you see the patient. This may be from any professional
member of staff (eg supervising doctor, junior doctor, nurse, administrator etc.). You must NEVER
falsify signatures, and such behaviour would be regarded as a fitness to practise issue.
Following up your patients’ management and progress is a key part of your learning. You will discover
how patients progress, how diagnoses change over time or when new information is obtained, how
problems are solved, and how some patients go on to suffer complications (eg hospital acquired
infection, pulmonary embolus etc). You can follow up patients by seeing them again, by reading their
medical records (eg discharge summaries) or by asking the clinical staff about their progress. Patients
you follow up we call ‘longitudinal cases’ and you should try to get as many longitudinal cases as
possible for your logbook.
31
You should collect as many patients as possible during your module but we only ask you to write up
and present 11 cases for each module at your OSCE assessment. You should have a reasonable
balance of cases from primary and secondary care. Up to 2 of these 11 cases may be ‘out of module’
cases (ie not related to the module you are currently studying). This allows you to make good use of
‘ad hoc’ learning opportunities that you come across in your clinical placements. However, these
cases must have been seen during that particular module and the dates of your sign-off sheets will
be checked during OSCE assessments.
You will have an assessment of your clinical logbook during an 11 minute station in each end of
Module OSCE. You should complete an index of cases for each module which clarifies which cases are
primary/secondary care as well as highlighting which cases you have been able to examine and which
you have followed up. The cases should be presented in a loose leaf folder with dividers. During the
OSCE assessment, you are only expected to provide the case write-up which you may consult during
the OSCE (it is not a test of memory). You should make your own notes about the background to the
case (previously called proforma B) but you will not be able to show these to your assessor or consult
them during the OSCE. The logbook assessment includes questions which may be clinical, or relate to
the background science and social science. Blackboard contains full guidance. It is essential to check
the logbook section on Blackboard for each module as our guidance is going to change in future.
There are also example logbooks on Blackboard.
End of Year Written Exam
In the ‘Integrative Period’ of years 1-4 (scheduled at the end of each year), there is a written exam.
This examination is sat in two parts in year 1, and three papers for years 2-4. In year 1 each part (A
and B) lasts 2 hours. Part A consists of short answers questions (SAQ) whilst Part B consists of 120
Single Best Answer questions (either extended matching type questions, or ‘best of five’ multiple
choice questions). Example questions are available on Blackboard. In years 2-4 we expect to give you
two Single best answer papers, and one Short Answer paper, but this may change.
The questions in your written exam may be drawn from any of the learning outcomes already
covered up to that point in the course (including previous years topics when in years 2 and above).
No notes or course material are allowed to be taken in to this exam.
More detailed guidance on preparing for the written exam and example questions are available on
Blackboard. (NOTE: details about our Finals Examination is issued separately.)
SSS Assessments
There are four summative SSS (student selected studies) assessments in years 1 to 4. Formative
assessments will also take place in years 1 to 3 for most themes (they are held roughly half way
through your SSS period); these formative sessions will be assessed and tutored by one member of
staff and are intended to guide your subsequent learning. It is mandatory for you to complete these
formative assessments, but a grade of fail will not require reassessment or stop progression.
However, it should trigger significantly more study in preparation for your summative SSS
assessment.
32




For most themes of study in Years 1 to 4, presentations consist of a 5, 10 or a 15 minute talk
using PowerPoint slides or a poster as visual aids.
The Summative assessment each year contributes to the results for your degree and this will
be assessed by two staff members.
Essays are assessed for themes such as ethics and law in some years; for summative
assessments these will be marked and returned with comments.
Continuous assessment and presentations are used for the anatomy SSS theme in years 2
and 3.
SSS presentations
In Years 1 to 3 presentations consist of a 10 minute talk with PowerPoint slides with 5 minutes for
questions (or poster in rotation 2 of year 3). They are assessed by two staff members, except for
module 1 (where there is only one member of staff). Essays will be marked and returned with
comments; ie there is no presentational element. In Year 4 the presentation is 15 minutes, with 10
minutes for questions.
Table 2. The format of the Standard SSS Assessments
Year of Study
Assessment
Year 1
PowerPoint Presentation
Year 2
PowerPoint Presentation
Year 3
Abstract (included in the
formative exam) and Poster
or 2000 word Essay (Ethics)
Year 4
Clinical Case Presentation
And Evidence Based Practice
presentation
Time to present in summative
exams** (for PowerPoint
presentations and posters)
10 minutes (and up to 5
minutes to discuss with
examiners)
10 minutes (and up to 5
minutes to discuss with
examiners)
Approximately 5 minutes to
present poster (and up to 5
minutes to discuss with
examiners)
15 minutes (and up to 10
minutes to discuss with
examiners)
** There is additional time in these sessions for the set up/change-over of PowerPoint slides etc, and for the
reading of the posters by students and examiners. Formative assessments will allow for shorter presentation
times and longer discussions with the tutor.
Research Methods
Analytical review: In years 1 and 2 research methods are assessed by review of an article selected by
the research methods team. This assessment is called an analytical review (AR). There are three
analytical reviews across your first 2 years of study – two in year 1: the first is a compulsory formative
assessment, the second is summative; and one summative assessment in year 2. Again by formative
we mean that your work must be submitted, and you must participate in the feedback sessions, but
the grade awarded will not count towards progression to year 2. In Module 2, and again in Year 2,
your analytical reviews will be summative, and you must gain at least a Pass to progress.
33
Assessments consist of an open, written review of a selected research paper either as a series of
short answer questions or in an essay format. Papers selected for appraisal will reflect the extent of
knowledge and skills taught within that module.
Research Protocol: Students use their learning from Research Methods sessions in years 1, 2 and 3 to
design a research protocol. This promotes the spiral learning model of the course.
Clinical Audit: In year 4 you will undertake a clinical audit, usually in pairs with one other (but
occasionally 2 other) colleague(s). These audits occur in either general practice or hospital settings
and you will be tutored by a clinician.
Portfolio Reports
The portfolio report is an annual summative assessment based on your reflections on personal
experiences that relate to various key professional challenges. The themes and specific questions are
based on core professional topics as set out by the GMC in “Duties of a Doctor”. Your ongoing
portfolio should provide you with appropriate experiences which you will convey in a well structured
and argued essay using appropriate references. A detailed description of the portfolio has been given
in a previous section of this handbook (see page 28). At the start of the academic year each year
group will be issued with a different question with the exception of Year 4. Year 4 students will be
asked to write a careers essay which they will discuss with their Personal adviser as a formative
assessment. More detailed advice regarding portfolio reports is available on Blackboard and will also
be given in lectures and seminars to each year group.
Primary Care and PBL tutor reports
Periodically (once or twice each module) you will have a one to one interview with your current GP
and PBL Tutors. These meetings will happen at the end of each module – when the tutors have
completed their report for you; but tutors may also organise to meet their students earlier in their
module too. These teachers have more contact with you than anyone else involved in our course,
and are therefore best placed to assess how you are progressing, whether your attitudes are
appropriate, and to give you feedback on how you might improve. For the great majority these
interviews are an occasion for reassurance, as many students worry that they are aren’t progressing
or working hard enough. Sometimes they may be the opportunity for a tutor to tell you candidly
what needs to change, or for you to flag up that you are having difficulties.
The tutor report form (completed at the end of each module) has 2 parts; one requires an
assessment of your ‘fitness to practise’ in line with GMC (this is an assessment of your professional
behaviour), the other part gives feedback about your academic (and for Primary Care – clinical)
progress and effectiveness within the group. At the end of the form you are graded as excellent,
good, needs improvement, or unsatisfactory. Most of you will perform well or very well and will be
graded as good or excellent. If your academic performance or behaviour falls short of expectation
you will be marked as ‘needs improvement’ or ‘unacceptable’. In such situations there should be a
clear plan of the steps you can take to address the difficulty.
This process is intended to be an opportunity for reflection and feedback, and an “early warning
system” in a few cases. Indeed, some tutors will get you to carry out your own self-rating using the
headings on the form, in advance of the meeting. A “needs improvement” or “unacceptable” does
not mean you will be automatically asked to leave the course, but it is an indication that things need
to change. If you are unsure how you might go about this, you can ask your GP or PBL tutor, or your
personal adviser for guidance. It is usual for those rated as ‘unacceptable’ to also meet with the Head
of Year [Deputy Course Director] for your year. In year 1 this is Dr Dominique Hubble, and she would
also review the feedback with you and discuss your plans for improvement.
34
Self and peer assessment of professional standards
At some point during the course you may be asked to do a self and peer assessment activity,
where you rate your own professional standards and those of your fellow PBL members using
the first part of the Tutor Report. This has five professional categories of behaviour including:
honesty, team-working, and ‘takes responsibility for personal behaviour’.
This activity will give you opportunity to reflect on your own experience and to practise giving and
receiving constructive feedback. This will help you develop the professional skills required to prepare
reflective reports and conduct peer appraisals as part of your clinical role after graduating.
Students will be introduced to this activity via a lecture on how to give effective feedback. This
assessment would be formative and feedback provided by students will be presented to peers
anonymously. You should then discuss the feedback you receive with your Personal Adviser, as part
of a wider discussion of your personal development and academic progress at the end of the year.
Student held records
First introduced in September 2012 for the Year 1 cohort, the ‘student held record’ is a personal
collection of documents which you are expected to collect during the MB BS course to describe your
progress and professional development. Students from previous cohorts may also wish to take part
and keep a record.
This record will form an important part of your portfolio assessment towards the end of the course,
so it is vital that you keep it complete, and up-to-date throughout the course from year 1 forwards. It
is also intended that this record resembles the documentation that doctors submit as part of their
professional appraisal or revalidation. The following documents should be included in your record:
 All your examination/assessment results including: OSCEs and written papers, research
methods (including Analytical Reviews, Research Protocol and Audit Reports), SSS
feedback, elective reports, portfolio, IPL and Studies Allied to Medicine feedback
 GP Tutor reports
 PBL Tutor reports
 Feedback from a variety of sources: patients or actors and role players; peers – other
medical students and allied health professionals
 Notes from all meetings or contact with your Personal Adviser
 Notes from other school meetings eg with Head of Years/Course
Director/Professionalism lead.
It is intended that this record will be used as a basis for meetings with your personal adviser. You may
also be asked by other Tutors, such as PBL or GP tutors, if they can see previous reports from their
particular area of the course. You are also expected to review and reflect on the documents in your
record as part of your portfolio but remember that the portfolio is a private journal from which you
select items to share with a wider professional audience in the form of evidence or examples
described in the written portfolio reports.
35
Intercalation to complete an MRes, MClinEd or Intercalated BSc
Competing for Foundation posts (your first medical job) and higher medical training is increasingly
competitive. One way of giving your application a significant boost is by undertaking a higher degree.
This is for two reasons. First those with additional qualifications gain more “points” when applying
for foundation posts (and all future medical posts). Equally, those who intercalate are more likely to
have the opportunity to publish research or present work at medical conferences. Again, publication
and conference presentation makes your application stronger.
We are keen to encourage as many students as possible to undertake an intercalated degree, for
those interested in extending their knowledge of Clinical and Biomedical research or Clinical
Education – do consider the three excellent degrees that UEA offers (see below). We would hope
that as many as 20% of your year would take up this opportunity.
MRes/MClinEd/MSc in Molecular Medicine
The MRes is the bespoke intercalation degree at UEA and provides the opportunity to undertake a
full year of research in a clinical or laboratory environment mentored by some of the top medical
researchers in the world. The MClinEd is also offered by the Medical School: students explore
advances in both theory and practice in clinical education and apply what they have learned through
work based placements. The MClinEd teaches key educational skills invaluable for a future clinical
career and provides a wide variety of career options such as a full time educator, a mentor or
supervisor.
Students undertaking either degree take a year out from their MB BS studies after year 3, or year 4,
while they pursue their additional degree, returning to the MB BS course once they have completed
their Masters degree.
There is also an MSc in Molecular Medicine available at UEA in Biological Sciences which may be of
interest to our students.
Alternatively, depending on your interests intercalation can provide one of your last opportunities to
study a topic related to medicine in real depth (eg undertaking an intercalated year outside UEA to
study a BSc in anything from sports science to medical humanities and from international public
health to physiology, or a clinical topic such as endocrinology). The range of external one year BSc
and Masters degrees available to UEA students is growing every day.
When can I do this?
Students can intercalate to complete one of these degrees after years 3 or 4. Currently, it is
somewhat favourable financially to do this after year 4, but this may change. Information on your
options is available via our intercalation website on Blackboard. If you are interested please contact
the intercalations’ tutor: Dr Kevin Tyler ([email protected]) for further details.
36
Referencing your work
In all of your work for the MB BS you need to acknowledge and cite the sources of information you
are using and referring to. The policy for 2013-14 in MED is that the Vancouver or Harvard styles
should be used universally for referencing sources. Both these styles consist of (i) an ‘in-text citation’
and (ii) a full citation in a reference list at the end of the document.
For the in-text citation Vancouver style uses a number in the text in [square] or (round) brackets, or
superscripted
. This number indicates the order in your document in which sources are first cited, and
refers to the corresponding full citation in the reference list, arranged in numerical order. Vancouver
format has been used for this page. The BMJ uses a variant of Vancouver style, also acceptable in
MED.
The Harvard style uses the surname of the first-author and the year of publication in round brackets
for the in-text citation (author, date), and the full citation information is in the reference list at the
end, arranged in alphabetical order of the first author of each source.
Either Harvard or Vancouver style may be used for any submitted work. Within each document, only
one style should be used. However, assessment-setters may give guidance on the preferred style for
that task. For oral presentations using PowerPoint, Harvard is the preferred style.
More detail on, and examples of, the use of Harvard and Vancouver styles may be found in the John
Squires Library guide (1), on the UEA Dean of Students (DoS) Learning Enhancement Service (LES)
website (2), and on Blackboard, under ‘ MB/BS General Information > Regulations > UEA & MB/BS Regulations,
Policies & Forms > Plagiarism & Referencing’. Please consult the DoS study guides to referencing
(including referencing internet sources, secondary referencing, paraphrasing and quoting) (2).
Note that when using Vancouver style, if you edit text containing in-text citations, the order in which
references appear may change. Their numbering then needs to be changed accordingly. If you are
organising your references manually then one way to keep track of this is to use an [author, date] intext temporary placeholder, and convert to numbers when your text is finalised.
If you use Bibliographic software such as ‘EndNote’, citation matching is all done for you: you enter
your reference information only once into the software database, select the appropriate output style
from dozens available, and then copy a reference entry into your text as you write it. It updates any
numbering of references automatically, or on demand, and formats the reference list. ‘EndNote’
software is available on UEA computers and learning to use it is well worth the initial investment in
time. For more information about ‘EndNote’ software, search on the Portal in the IT services section
or ask at the IT helpdesk.
Reference list
1.
John Squire Library. Guide to Referencing. London: North West London Hospitals NHS Trust;
2011 [updated 15th July 2011; cited 22 July 2013]. Available from:
http://www.johnsquirelibrary.org.uk/guides/referencing.htm.
2.
UEA Dean of Students Office. Study resources. 2013 [cited 22 July 2013]. Available from:
https://intranet.uea.ac.uk/services/students/let/study_resources/academic_writing_study_skills.
37
Plagiarism and collusion
Whatever you heard or learned about these topics before, you must make sure to learn the UEA
rules, whether they are similar or different to what you know. Students all too often get into trouble
by not doing this. Definitions of plagiarism (the unacknowledged use of another person's work) and
collusion (a form of plagiarism, involving unauthorised co-operation between at least two people)
are expanded in the UEA policy document on these topics. The policy can be found here
http://www.uea.ac.uk/calendar/section3/regs%28gen%29/plagandcoll and there is a wealth of useful
information on avoiding plagiarism, provided by the Dean of Students’ Office here:
http://www.uea.ac.uk/plagiarism
The UEA policy on plagiarism and collusion applies to work of all types submitted for formative as
well as summative assessment, including, for example, work produced for PBL and logbooks. Please
check guidance specific to different tasks for what is expected for each. What you submit needs to be
a result of your own effort and representing your own ideas and understanding. If you are using the
ideas of others then you just need to acknowledge them clearly by citing them specifically. If you use
their words you need to show this by using quotation marks as well as the citation.
The policy states that the University takes this very seriously, because “students who plagiarise or
collude threaten the values and beliefs that underpin academic work and devalue the integrity of the
University’s awards.” (p.1). These offences, and also self-plagiarism, which is undeclared resubmission for assessment of one’s own previously assessed or published work, are also considered a
fitness to practise issue for medical students, because of the expectations of probity for doctors and
medical students (1).
You are expected to familiarise yourself with the principles and definitions explained in the UEA
policy document, and to use resources provided by UEA, including those on the DOS web pages cited
above, to help you to develop good academic practice and to avoid committing plagiarism and
collusion. Working in groups is encouraged and required in MED because learning can be enriched
deeply by sharing ideas with others. What you share should be in a form that needs digestion and
evaluation by your peer: this is what learning is about. It is risky to share work with other students in
a form that could be submitted for individual assessment, as the provider could also be accused of
collusion.
All work of students in the MB BS and the MRes course that is suspected of containing plagiarised
material may be submitted to the text-matching software ‘Turnitin’ to establish the extent of the
offence and to help identify sources. More information about ‘Turnitin’ is available from the DOS
website at the address given above.
Even if not required to submit an assessment electronically, you must keep electronic copies of your
assessments as submitted, in case you are required to produce them for checking with ‘Turnitin’. It is
also advisable to keep copies (electronic or paper) of working drafts of assessments in order to show
your ownership of the work, if required.
Copyright law and sharing electronic resources
A separate but related issue to plagiarism, pertinent especially to use of electronic resources, is that
copying and pasting sources of electronic origin (eg images, diagrams and text on websites), is very
likely to infringe copyright of the authors. This is true even if the source is acknowledged thus
avoiding plagiarising it. Terms and conditions of many resources readily available on the internet
often state that their use is free for personal use, but that copying, sharing or redistribution is not
allowed, even for educational purposes. Posting on Blackboard, or emailing copies, are forms of
redistribution and sharing. Websites popular for PBL work and PDF files of journal articles are
38
included in this. The Terms and Conditions of use should always be checked before copying. The
UEA’s copyright expert recommends that best practice to avoid infringing copyright is to share or
post a link to the resource (pers. comm., Dave Palmer, UEA Library, March 2009). The electronic link
allows each user to read and download or process the item as the copyright terms and UEA’s licence
allow.
Sources
1.
General Medical Council, Medical Schools' Council. Medical students: professional values and
fitness to practise. 2009. [Accessed 20 Aug 2011]. Available from: http://www.gmcuk.org/education/undergraduate/professional_behaviour.asp.
A student’s guide to coping with
constant assessment
On all medical courses you get assessed a lot, and UEA is no different. The key to coping with
constant assessment is to be organised. Know which assessments are coming up
and roughly how long each one will take to prepare for. You can find this out by
chatting to students in higher years. Don’t stress too much about upcoming
assessments otherwise you will burn out. Just plan what you need to do and
when you need to do it. It is a good idea that as soon as you are set an
assignment to look over it, that way even if you don’t plan to do it
immediately you can be thinking about it in the meantime.
A student’s guide to preparing for OSCEs
The key to success in OSCEs is to be systematic and to practise, practise, practise. It is very easy to
miss easy marks just because it’s not second nature. The best way to practise is to put together a
mark sheet of everything you think you need to do in each station including
washing your hands and greeting the patient etc. then get together with friends
and practise till you are perfect.
A student’s guide to preparing for the End of Year Written Exam
All students find the written exam daunting because of the body of knowledge
students are expected to know. The key is to focus on the important bits and start
early. At the end of each week take the time to look over the learning objectives for the
week and those for the lectures and see if you would be happy you would be able to answer them as
a short answer question. If not, try going through the seminars related to that objective and make
notes on them. You will find that for the single best answer (SBA) paper a lot of the knowledge you
will acquire simply by paying attention in seminars and teaching in primary and Secondary Care.
There are some useful books of questions, but remember some UEA SBAs are in a unique style so
make sure you have a look at practice questions on Blackboard to get an idea from them.
39
Course Progression and
Reassessment
In order to progress to the next year of the course you have to pass all assessments (except for
formative assessments occurring in Module 1). Currently, you are permitted one further attempt (a
'resit') of any assessment that you fail.
Please note that if you fail any summative component of our course twice, you will be withdrawn
from our course.
If you feel your assessment performance is impaired by unexpected health or personal events
’extenuating circumstances’ or ‘circumstances affecting study’) you should report this to the Learning
and Teaching Hub as soon as possible, preferably prior to an assessment. Please note that there is a
cut-off date shortly after each examination date by which time your circumstances must have been
submitted so as to be considered by the Extenuating Circumstances Panel. Dates of these panels will
be publicised to students.
The circumstances affecting study form LTS001 is available on the portal along with detailed guidance
on how to complete the form and what can be submitted as supporting evidence
http://www.uea.ac.uk/learningandteaching/documents/student. On it you should describe
clearly why you may have performed below the standard you expect of yourself and demonstrate
that the timing of your situation coincided with the period in which you were being assessed. The
supporting evidence must verify your statement. The Exam Boards cannot change a result in any way,
ie they cannot change a fail to a pass. So, if you do fail an assessment and your circumstances are
accepted, the Exam Board is only permitted to void that attempt. Thus, for example, if a first attempt
is voided you would then have two further attempts.
It is worth noting that from September 2013, no student will have the automatic right to
reassessment. Those students whose engagement/attendance with the course has been poor and
who fail an examination may not be offered a reassessment opportunity.
PROGRESSION CRITERIA to the final two years of the MB BS course (ie progression to years 4 & 5)
Any student who fails to meet the progression criteria (see below) before, or at the end of, year 3 will
be required to leave the course and will not be permitted to progress to years 4 and 5 of the course.
Criteria: In the first three years a student sits six ‘examinations’: three ‘overall OSCEs (note each year
your OSCE scores are combined to give an ‘overall OSCE’ score which you must pass); and three ‘End
of Year Written Examinations’ (this is the combined score across all summative written examinations
each year) in addition to other assessments.
If at the end of year 3 a student has had 3 or more fails in those elements of assessment (Overall
OSCE and End of year written examinations) at the first sitting then they will not be permitted to
continue to years 4 and 5 of the course. Any student who has failed 3 or more of these assessments
by the end of year 2 will not be permitted to continue to year 3. The first sitting will be considered to
be the first time a student attempts an assessment and will remain classified as a first sitting even if
this attempt result is voided due to extenuating circumstances.
40
This policy does not restrict students from achieving the exit degree (BSc in Medical Studies) from
the MB BS as the exit degree is awarded to any student who has passed all assignments up to the
end of year 3 whether at first attempt or at reassessment.
REPEAT OF A YEAR
In the following circumstances you would normally be required to repeat a year rather than to
intercalate:


upheld appeals following a fail at reassessment
a fail at a delayed first sit sat during the reassessment period.
For the degree of MB BS where a student fails a module or any element of a module and is
subsequently offered the opportunity of a reassessment, which is delayed until the next academic
year, the student would normally be required to return for the entire academic year or such portion
of the academic year as the School feels is necessary to ensure that professional and practical skills
are maintained.
In order to evidence their continuing competence in those aspects of the course, other than that
which is being formally reassessed, students shall have to achieve a passing grade in all
assessments which arise during their repeat period.
LENGTH OF REGISTRATION on the MB BS or MB BS with a Foundation Year
Any student registered on the MB BS or MB BS with a Foundation Year will only be permitted a
maximum of two periods of intercalation or repeat of study, amounting to no more than 2 years, as a
result of a fail delayed first sit, or delayed second sit, or the result of an appeal.
In the event where a student has an outstanding reassessment opportunity but the period of
registration would exceed the maximum permitted (5 + 2 for MB BS or 6 + 2 for MB BS with
foundation) the student will not be permitted to undertake the reassessment and will be required to
leave the course.
Exception:

Where there has been a period of intercalation to undertake an intercalated degree after
year 3 or 4, this will add a year onto the registration as this is permitted within the
regulations. This intercalated year will not count towards the above allocation.
When does registration start?

The start of registration will always be the first time you enter the course at UEA regardless
of whether entering year 0 or 1, as relevant.
41
YEAR 5 FINALS STAGE BOARD
The Finals Exam Stage Board which will consider overall performance for the 5th year after you have
taken your Final exam in February/March of your Final year. This Board will consider your Finals
performance, and all four tutor reports (M13 PBL, M13 Primary Care, M14 medicine tutor report,
M14 surgery report), CBD performance x 2, ALS (advanced life support) performance, and procedural
skills logbook completion (including performance at the national prescribing skills assessment [PSA])
and performance at final clinical and written examinations.
Overall, the Board will be able to choose from the following options:
1.
No action – student has reached standard and therefore is permitted to undertake Module
15 (internal elective) as normal. Subject to satisfactory completion of Module 15, the student will
graduate.
2.
The student has passed Finals, but due to their performance during Year 5 modules prior to
Finals the student will be required to undertake clinical remediation instead of the Module 15
(internal elective), at the discretion of the Exam Board. This remediation will commence immediately
after Finals and may include weekend days and evening shifts, as determined by the supervising
team. The MB BS degree will only be conferred subject to satisfactorily completing this remediation,
in addition to passing Finals.
3.
The student has failed Finals, but will be permitted to undertake Module 15 as remediation
prior to undertaking a resit attempt that academic year.
4.
The student will be stopped from resitting Finals at the first available opportunity in that
same academic year, and the student will be expected to repeat the final year.
School Feedback
Throughout your course you will have many opportunities to gain feedback on how you are doing;
much of this will be informal on a day-to-day basis within your hospital or your Primary Care
placements; or during your group work (PBL or Consultation Skills in particular). Take note of this
informal feedback as it is as crucial to you as any written feedback on your assessments. In addition,
as mentioned earlier, you will have tutor report forms completed by your PBL tutor and GP tutor
each module (see page 32). We expect you to keep all your feedback together, as part of your
student held record. This is an important record of your progress through our course. It will also help
you reflect on your strengths and weaknesses as you progress through the five years of the MB BS
and identify if there are consistent areas that you have problems with (see page 33). Feedback will
enable you to identify which topics and/or learning outcomes you need to study and strengthen your
understanding of. You should also go through this feedback with your adviser, either on a termly
basis, but certainly at least once a year. Check Blackboard for more information on the different kinds
of feedback you will receive for each type of assessment, and how to make the most of the support
of your adviser.
42
How assessment results are given
The way in which assessment results are given back to students is constantly evolving and varies with
different assessments.
SSS, AR, Portfolio, Research Protocol, Clinical Audit and SAM/SOM
Results are posted on E:vision (this is part of the student record system that you will have access to).
Mark sheets with assessors’ comments will be placed in your pigeon hole in the MED building.
Module OSCEs
A breakdown of your marks for each station will be sent to you and your adviser via email.
End of Year Written Exam and Overall year OSCE
Results are posted on E:vision.
A breakdown of your marks will be sent to you and your adviser via email.
To access results on E:vision: go to Blackboard, click on the Academic tab, half way down the right
hand side there is box called Student records – click on student view, then under assessment and
award details
click on
provisional
marks this year.
These results are an essential part of
your annual report and should form
a part of your meetings with your
adviser. We strongly advise that you
hold on to all of your results AND tutor reports (GP and PBL) and keep them together in your student
held record so you can discuss your strengths, weaknesses and progress with your adviser and your
tutors. All feedback reports are kept on campus for 4 weeks then archived and sent off campus. It is
possible to recall them but unfortunately the University is charged per box, so if you require another
copy of your feedback this cost will be charged to you.
What the bands/deciles mean:
After all OSCEs and End of Year Written Exams we will publish decile cut-off scores. Deciles go from 1
to 10 for any exam. Students in the first decile have performed best, whilst those in the 10th have
performed least well.
Your decile gives you an indication of how you are doing, however it is important to remember that
marks are in a bell shaped curve with a few students at both extremes and lots of people getting
around the average mark, so the difference between being in the 3rd decile and being in the 7th decile
is often very small. You will be able to see that yourself as the mark ranges are often very tight.
43
If you are worried about your decile do chat to your personal adviser.
When a distinction is awarded:
This varies in different assessments.
Details are available under “assessment” on Blackboard.

Overall OSCE: A distinction is awarded for a raw mark which is 15% above the final agreed
pass mark percentage.

End of Year Written Exam: A distinction is awarded for a raw mark which is 20% above the
final agreed pass mark percentage.

Portfolio Report: at least 3 distinction grades out of the 5 marking criteria (note the
marking scheme is likely to change in 2013/14; there may be no distinction category).

SSS, Analytical Review and Clinical Audit: achievement of stated distinction level for that
specific assessment.

End of year distinction (years 1-4): this is awarded to those who achieve an overall
distinction in their OSCE for the year, and gain a distinction in one other assessment (ie nonOSCE) that year. The distinction is not awarded if a summative assessment has been failed.

End of year distinction (year 5): this is awarded to those who achieve an overall
distinction in their Final Clincial assessment. The distinction is not awarded if a summative
assessment has been failed.
44

Distinction at Finals Assessment (clinical and written): this is awarded to those who
gain a raw mark of 20% above the pass mark for Finals. (Note: this will change from 2014/15
when it is likely that the written examination will be considered separately from the clinical
examination.)
 End of course merit: awarded to those who are both in the top 25% of the ranking at the
end of the year 4 and in the top 25% of our Finals exam.
 End of course distinction: This is awarded to those who are both in the top 15% of the
ranking at the end of year 4 and in the top 15% of our Finals exam.
Student feedback/evaluation and the
Student Staff Liaison Committee
It is very important for you to be able to have input into how the MB BS programme develops, and
we really value this. There are a number of feedback mechanisms described below. Do please also
consider becoming one of our student representatives as that is an excellent way to ensure you and
your colleagues’ views are heard.
Course Evaluation
In Years 2 to 5 all our students are asked to provide feedback at the end of their first module each
year (End of Module Evaluation).
Whilst end of module evaluations are voluntary, they are really important to the course and so you
are strongly encouraged to complete these evaluation forms. Clearly, we cannot get a valid overview
of student opinion unless we get a majority of students responding to feedback requests, and it is
only through these means that we can really see where changes need to be made.
All students are required to complete an Annual Evaluation. This evaluation takes place around the
Easter vacation for Years 0, 2-4, and around Finals for Year 5.
In Years 1 the Annual Evaluation is split into two parts. The first part takes place at the end of Module
1, and the second part at the end of Module 2.
This is a compulsory task for all our medical students. The findings are formally summarised, and fedback to all students and staff on the MB BS, and posted on Blackboard.
You will be sent further details nearer the time.
Please take evaluation seriously and spend time on it, consider positive as well as negative aspects of
your experience to comment on. Try to be specific, and comment in such a way that it is clear why
something is particularly good (or less so). Please do not be rude about staff or unprofessional, as
they do receive these comments. We take your views very seriously and try to respond to your views
by improving/changing things wherever we can.
Evaluation forms and full details of the MB BS course evaluation system can be found in the MB BS
Course wide Evaluations folder of Blackboard.
45
Occasionally, there are other ad hoc requests to provide feedback during the year if staff need
feedback about a particular aspect of the course urgently or in particular detail.
You can also provide feedback at any time during the year, without prompting, using the ‘Student inyear evaluation form’ which can be found in this folder.
Student Representation
Student representation is a key way that students can give feedback about the course and thus
improve it. Representation is arranged in a variety of ways within MED:
Year PBL Rep Committee
Each PBL group will elect one PBL representative. All PBL reps then meet together. They need to elect
their own Chair and secretary who represent them at the Staff Student Liaison Committee (SSLC: see
below). This group of reps should meet at least once/term to raise issues that their chair (and
secretary) can take on to the SSLC.
Staff Student Liaison Committee (SSLC)
This is comprised of the chair and scribe from each year’s PBL representative committee, the Course
Director and the Senior Administrator from the Undergraduate Programmes office (ie about 10
students + staff). This is the main way for students to give general feedback about the course. You
can contact one of your year’s SSLC representatives directly or give feedback to your PBL rep who will
then pass it. All representatives are listed on Blackboard under General Information > Staff/Student
Liaison, which will appear once the members have been elected.
Chair of Staff Student Liaison Committee (SSLC)
The student chair of the SSLC is a student elected from within the main SSLC. Their role is to oversee
all student representation within MED and ensure any concerns or suggestions that students have
are passed onto the appropriate members of faculty. They also act as student representative on the
Curriculum Design and Development committee (CDD) alongside a specific CDD student
representative.
If you wish to get in touch with the SSLC chair their contact details can be found on Blackboard.
Curriculum Design and Delivery representative (CDD)
The MB BS course’s main committee is CDD. This committee discusses all key issues within the
course. There are two student representatives – one is elected directly to this role for a two year
period, the other is the current Chair of SSLC.
Module teams
There are 15 module teams each responsible for one of the modules (including both electives), in
addition there are separate module teams responsible for Student Selected Study (SSS) programme,
and Research Methods. Each team is led by a MED faculty member and each has 1-2 student
members, ideally one from the relevant year of study, and one from the year above who has already
completed that module. These students are elected to act on the module team for 2 years. The name
and contact details for these reps can be found on Blackboard under general information >
student/staff liaison.
More information on this can be found on Blackboard.
46
Who’s who on the MB BS
Starting a medical course is an adventure, but it can also be like entering a maze. Below is a brief
description of some of the key people you will meet:
Head of School/Dean:
David Crossman is Professor of Cardiology. As Head of School, he is
responsible for all students attached to the Medical School (MED for short), undergraduate and
postgraduate, and all our staff. We employ over 200 members of staff and are continuing to grow.
Course Director:
Richard Holland is Professor of Public Health Medicine and is responsible for
managing the course, its development, and specifically leads Year 5. He heads the Medical Education
department, and has a research programme in substance misuse and pharmacy practice.
Heads of Year:
There are five Heads of Year. Each is responsible for the curriculum and
assessment within their specific year and is Chair of their respective Exam Boards. They meet
students for initial management of professional problems (eg with attendance).
Dr Dominique Hubble is a GP and leads Year
1. She also has involvement with Admissions.
Dr Pauline Bryant is a GP and leads Year 2.
She is also responsible for PBL across all five
years.
Dr Veena Rodrigues is a public health doctor
and leads Year 3.
Dr Paul Strickland is a GP and leads year 4
Dr Lawson Baxter is a GP and leads year 5.
Dr Dominique Hubble
Dr Pauline Bryant
Paul Strickland
Photo to be supplied
Dr Veena Rodrigues
Dr Paul Strickland
Dr Lawson Baxter
47
Senior Adviser: Ms Maggie Bunting is our Senior Adviser (and our Disability Lead), with Dr
Christina Mason, Dr Charlotte Salter, and Dr Nilesh Patel as deputies, and Dr Silke Schelenz is our
international student adviser. Maggie leads our student advising system. She and her team are happy
to see students who are experiencing particular difficulties who need support beyond what can be
provided by your personal adviser (see the section on personal advisers for more information).
Disability Leads: we have two disability leads – Maggie Bunting is our lead for MB BS students
with any health-related disability and Dr Sandra Gibson supports students with any form of specific
learning disability including dyslexia etc. Maggie and Sandra are there to support you and can help to
ensure reasonable adjustments are in place for those who require them for the course, or our
assessments. Both work with the Dean of Students office who can also provide further support.
Maggie Bunting
Dr Sandra Gibson
Dr Christina Mason
Dr Charlotte Salter
Dr Nilesh Patel
Dr Silke Schelenz
Other Leads
Dr Mary Jane Platt is a public health doctor and is Head of Teaching and Learning for the Medical
School. She is also our Admissions’ tutor.
Dr Lesley Bowker is the Clinical Skills Director overseeing clinical skills training and assessment with
particular responsibility for hospital placements and OSCE assessments. Lesley runs the Clinical Skills
Resource Area at the Norfolk and Norwich University hospital (NNUH).
Professor Amanda Howe is Professor of Primary Care, and is Chair of our Professionalism Committee.
She is responsible for our Fitness to Practise/Professionalism regulations.
48
Dr Richard Young is Lead Practice Development Tutor. He is responsible for the selection and training
of the GP practices providing placements in Primary Care for the MB BS. He is a practising GP who
has taught many students in his own practice.
Dr David Barton is the Practice Development Tutor for year 1, with responsibility for overseeing
teaching in Primary Care for year 1.
Dr Gill Price is the Plagiarism Officer for Norwich Medical School. Each School has a plagiarism officer
who hears all the cases of suspected plagiarism and/or collusion.
Dr Mary Jane Platt
Dr Lesley Bowker
Dr Gill Price
Professor Amanda
Howe
Dr Dickie Young
Dr David Barton
Academic staff: Each module you undertake has an academic lead, and a number of clinicians also
associated with the module. In year 1 the module leads are:


Module 1 (the Human Lifecycle):
Module 2 (Locomotion):
Dr Laura Bowater
Dr Tarnya Marshall
Theme leads: Our course is divided into modules that you study one by one. Within these modules
you will learn about medicine, and all its component parts – these are our themes/domains, from
anatomy to psychology. In addition, each year you will undertake a Student Selected Study (see
above) allowing you to study one of these themes in more depth. Each theme/domain has a lead.
49
Administrative staff: The administrative staff that support the MB BS are based in the Learning
& Teaching Hub West (UG) on the ground floor of the Elizabeth Fry Building (opposite the MED
building). They are there to help if you have any questions. Your year support should be your first
point of contact and s/he will try to answer your question or refer you to someone who can.
WHO
Sarah Wright
MAIN AREA
Learning and Teaching Coordinator,
Secretary to the MED Exam Boards
EMAIL
PHONE
[email protected]
01603
591531
Dale Larwood

Year 1
[email protected]
01603
591684
Lisa Clarke



Year 2
Timetabling Years 1 & 2
PBL tutors
[email protected]
01603
591862
Dale Larwood


Year 3
Timetabling for Year 1 & 3
[email protected]
01603
591684
Emma Grant




Year 4
Timetabling for Year 4
Electives
Studies Allied with Medicine
(SAM,
previously
Studies
Outside Medicine)
[email protected]
01603
591233
Matt Clark




Year 5
Consultation Skills
Timetabling Year 5
Clinical Audit
[email protected]
01603
591231




Year 5
Consultation Skills
Timetabling Year 5
Clinical Audit
[email protected]

Team Leader for MED
Years 1 -5
[email protected]
(Mon – Wed am)

Team Leader for MED
Years 1 -5
Patricia Knights
Sarah Browne
(Wednesday, Thursday & Friday)
01603
591719
(Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday)
Sarah Reynolds
[email protected]
(Wed pm – Fri)
01603
593234
01603
593234
50
School Management: within the Medical School itself, our administrative team is led by Carrie
White, Faculty Manager. Carrie manages the administrative staff within the Medical School, working
closely with Professor Crossman (Head of School) in the management of the Medical School, and
assists with some academic related committee work. Carrie is supported by Catherine Butcher,
School Manager. Catherine ensures support for the delivery of teaching activity by the School and
assists with the Staff Student Liaison Committee.
Some students successfully submit abstracts for national or international conferences, or attend
other national events for the school (eg as a student representative). Those students can apply for
funding to the school for travel / conference expenses. If approved by the Course Director, those
claim forms should be submitted to MED reception for the attention of Carrie
[email protected].
Hospital administrative teams:
Each hospital also has administrative staff responsible for
putting together your timetable. The overall Secondary Care Co-ordinator is Jane Nicholls
[email protected] Tel 01603 286620, who can be contacted about general queries to do
with Secondary Care placements. Site specific queries can be answered by the site administrators.
Who
Title
Email
Phone
number
Jane Nicholls
Secondary Care
Coordinator
[email protected]
01603
286620
Rebecca Ogden
Administrative Team
Leader
[email protected]
01603
286619
Louise
Terrington
Administrator
[email protected]
01603
286622
Carol Beamish
Administrator
[email protected]
01493
453635
Linda Turner
Administrator
[email protected]
01493
453743
Helen Bensley
Administrator
[email protected]
01553
613136
Julie White
Administrator
[email protected]
01553
613128
/613921
NNUH
JPUH
QEH
51
IPSWICH
Sue Holroyd
Administrator
[email protected]
Katie Haystead
Administrative Support [email protected]
Module 9
01473
702525
01473
703090
What the School expects from you
The UEA MB BS is a professional qualification, and all our students need to develop themselves as
professionals whilst undertaking the course. In general, we find our students to be excellent: you are
hardworking, reliable, friendly, appreciative and supportive of others, try to improve things that
could be better, and learn fast from any problems.
We reward good progress in professionalism on an annual basis by a recognised ‘pass’ in this area,
which can be declared in a CV, and exceptional achievement may also be recognised over time.
It is impossible to specify all the ways in which a professional code of conduct can be violated: you
must interpret the principles and make your own judgements, as will staff.
The following examples indicate areas where medical schools have
encountered problems and which students should be careful about.
(Please read both our full professionalism guidance and attendance
policies which are available on Blackboard).
As a student on the UEA MB BS course you are expected to:
1. Comply with the spirit and principles set out by the
accrediting body, the General Medical Council – particularly
those in, ‘Duties of a Doctor’ and ‘Medical Students:
professional values and fitness to practise’.
2.
“A student’s fitness to practise is
called into question when their
behaviour or health raises a
serious or persistent cause for
concern about their ability to
continue on a medical course, or to
practise as a doctor after
graduation. This includes, but is
not limited to, the possibility that
they could put patients or the
public at risk, and the need to
maintain trust in the profession”
Medical Students: professional
Ensure patient safety and wellbeing in every way you can.
values and fitness to practise
eg
(GMC, 2009)
 Be on time for sessions booked with patients, ensure
the patient is still willing to see you, check if there is anything you can help them
with (eg pass on relevant information to staff).
 Be safe for practice – clean hands and clothes, healthy, not under influence of
drugs/alcohol, preventive immunisations in place, follow occupational
health advice.
 Do not exceed the limits of your competence.
 Do not develop personal relationships with patients – do not arrange to
see them out of the NHS setting or without tutor knowledge and do not
exchange personal details.
 Maintain confidentiality, while sharing essential information for patient safety.
52
3. Be honest and truthful in all areas of your interaction with staff, students and patients eg
 Declare any special needs or health problems that need to be
known to staff to ensure student and/or patient safety (eg an
infectious illness, occupational hazard, addiction, mental health).
 Do not plagiarise or cite other people’s work without due
attribution to them (brief notes about referencing and plagiarism
are provided earlier in this handbook).
 Never falsify others’ signatures.
 Ensure staff and patients know that you are a medical student and
not a doctor, and declare any limit to your competence.
4. Be responsible about all formal requirements of the University eg
 Submit assessments and other compulsory paperwork by the deadline given.
 Attend all teaching OR notify lead staff promptly if illness etc. prevents this.
 For Secondary Care, always sign the register. Those who arrive too late to sign MUST
notify Jane Nicholls, or it will be marked as an absence.
 Complete the annual declaration and student-held record promptly and fully.
 Abide by and comply with the University regulations. This includes checking your
email and pigeon holes every 48 hours.
5. Be respectful of the needs and efforts of others eg
 Support peers and any staff members involved in your teaching and learning. Be
polite and appreciative when staff and patients have put aside time and effort to
arrange learning and assessment.
 Should criticism be necessary, do this with due consideration and focus on how to
resolve the problem, rather than being rude or aggressive to the person.
 Ensure that patients are given due time and attention, that you make their comfort
and safety your first priority, and thank them for their involvement with your
learning.
 Avoid late arrival, chatting, telephone and social networking use during teaching and
assessment sessions.
 Always consider the safety of other clinical staff (eg safe sharp disposal, ensuring you
leave clinical areas and teaching areas clean and tidy etc.)
6. Seek help when needed – it is your responsibility to be proactive about issues which may
undermine your performance eg
 Declare extenuating circumstances BEFORE formal assessments.
 Meet with your Personal Adviser regularly (the minimum number of meetings
expected for MB BS students is three per year), including consulting on progress.
7. Consider your own reputation and that of the School and University when you are outside
the campus or NHS setting eg
 Dress appropriately when working as a medical student.
 Breaking confidentiality, drinking to excess, voicing unjustifiable
criticisms of others not present to defend themselves, having major
rows in public settings with other students, criminal acts such as
stealing or illegal drug use or illegal drug dealing are all examples which can bring
both you and the School into disrepute.
We would recommend that you refer to teaching staff, particularly on placement, by their title and
second name, until you are invited to use their first name.
53
For students undertaking paid work, it must not occur in timetabled sessions. You must limit this so
that it does not detract from the private study required to support course work, or from time you
also need to relax. You should judge how much is manageable according to your progress on the
course, but we anticipate that it would be very unusual to manage more than 4-8 hours of paid work
per week. Similarly, participation in extra-curricular activities should be guided by your course
progress.
NB: an absolute minimum of 10-15 hours private study per week is expected by the course.
Attendance
Good attendance is closely related to good performance. The majority of our students attend well; all
teaching sessions on the MB BS are considered to be core and attendance is expected.
Absence vs. performance at rotation 1 OSCE
92
142
90
OSCE score year 2-4
140
88
OSCE score year 1
144
138
86
year 2
year 3
136
year 4
84
year 1
134
82
132
130
80
0
1
2
>2
Number of days of clinical absence
Students with poor attendance are reviewed by the Head of Year/Deputy Course director for your
year (Dr Dominique Hubble). Students with particular attendance issues may then be: referred to the
Head of School; formally written to about our concerns. Poor attendance does occasionally lead to
School Warnings. These may be noted as a ‘GMC reportable warning’ which you would declare at the
end of the course on application to the GMC for registration. (Registration with the GMC is necessary
to practise as a Foundation doctor, see page 16). Very occasionally, attendance patterns are such that
students have been asked to leave the course.
Note: Formal warnings may be given when a student’s conduct with regard to attendance and
engagement has been very poor, please note that these are given very rarely. GMC reportable
warnings must be reported by the student to the GMC and their future employer when they qualify.
Please refer to the University regulations on Attendance, Engagement and Progress
http://www.uea.ac.uk/learningandteaching/students/studying/attendance.
54
Where you can seek help
Personal Advisers
Every student at the University of East Anglia has a Personal Adviser who is there to provide
academic, career and pastoral advice. You have the same Adviser throughout the 5 years. Your
Adviser will offer you support and guidance as you need it and may help with practical things like
providing references. They will encourage you to adopt attitudes and approaches which will help you
to become a good doctor. Regular meetings with them are crucial. You should meet your personal
Adviser within the first 2 weeks of the first term of each new academic year, and then subsequently
once each term to discuss feedback on your assessments and how things are going.
The responsibility to make contact and organise the meeting is with you. For the first meeting of the
academic year from years 2-5, please complete and take along your student held record to discuss
This student held record includes information on your exam results, career ideas and areas to
develop. At all meetings it is important to bring a copy of all your assessment results and tutor
reports.
You can also arrange to see the School’s Senior Adviser (Dr Charlotte Salter) or her deputy (Dr
Christina Mason), or Dr Silke Schelenz (international student adviser) to discuss a particular issue.
The Senior Advisers can provide information on the School’s procedures and advice on areas students
may be getting into difficulty with (course and non-course related). Each Adviser has approximately
five students. Further details of the Advisers role are given on Blackboard.
Dyslexia Adviser
If you have or develop dyslexia and have concerns about it you can contact Sandra Gibson
([email protected]). If you think you may have dyslexia and wish to get tested you should contact
the Dean of Students (see below) who can organise this for you.
Disability Adviser
If you have concerns about any disability you should contact the School’s Disability Adviser, Maggie
Bunting ([email protected])
Pregnancy
If you are pregnant please contact Maggie Bunting as soon as possible in order for the School to
conduct risk assessments. All information is strictly confidential but for your safety the School needs
to be aware at an early stage.
International student adviser
I see my role first and foremost as a student adviser like any other student adviser except with special
responsibilities to you, as international students. This means that whilst you have your own personal
adviser, just like other students, you are also very welcome to seek advice from me. If you want to
meet me, please book to see me by sending me an e-mail: [email protected]
We envisage that as an international student, you may have particular needs that may be different
from home students such as English language problems, living very far away from home which may
involve travelling across international or continental boundaries. You may experience cultural or
social issues that are totally different from what you are used. The financial issues you face may be
very different for example; for some, you may have been sponsored by your national governments
and as such have huge pressure on you to succeed as failure might lead to some penalty. Your
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educational background may be different in some ways and you may have very different learning
styles and techniques as well as other particular personal issues.
Hence I hope my role is to try and help you succeed on our course, by giving you necessary advice so
you have a very positive educational experience here at UEA. In addition, I try to facilitate activities
that you may find useful and enjoyable outside the course.
Further information about support services is available via the following links:
Dean of Student’s Office: www.uea.ac.uk/services/students/International
INTO Centre: http://intohigher.com/universities/united-kingdom/university-of-east-anglia.aspx
International adviser within the Medical School: Silke Schelenz, Clinical Senior Lecturer
[email protected]
Dean of Students’ Office
The Dean of students is a valuable resource if you have any concerns of difficulties. They offer a
Counselling service, accommodation and finance offices. The DoS also runs a learning enhancement
service which offers advice on several areas including giving presentations, exam technique,
organisation and time management. More information on this can be found at
http://www.uea.ac.uk/dos or you can visit the Dean of Students it is located on the Upper Street
close to the Library, between Waterstones Bookshop and the University Counselling Service.
Intercalation
Students may request to intercalate from the course (ie take time out from the course) for a number
of reasons – health, personal issues, pregnancy, and intercalated degrees. Time out from the course
is often a full academic year but each case is considered on an individual basis. All initial queries
regarding intercalation should be directed to the EFB Hub [email protected]. You can also find
information here: http://www.uea.ac.uk/learningandteaching/students/studying/concessions
This link also provides other information such as how to transfer to another course.
General Practitioner
You are required to have a local GP whilst at UEA and it is recommended that you register with the
University Medical Centre so that if you have any health difficulties you have someone to turn to. The
University Medical Centre offers free confidential sexual health and travel clinics. You can contact the
medical centre by email on [email protected], by phone (01603) 592172 or in the case of
emergencies (01603) 251600.
Student Union Advice Centre
The Union Advice Centre provides an independent, free and confidential service open to all UEA
students. You can pick up leaflets and information about a range of subjects and the friendly staff can
offer face-to-face advice on just about anything. If they can’t help you, they will send you to
someone who can. The Advice Centre is located on the walkway of Union House, next to the Travel
Shop and the entrance to the Hive overlooking the Square. They are open weekdays 9am-5pm
(Wednesdays 11am-5pm). You can drop in during the day to pick up a leaflet or book an appointment
with one of their Advice Workers. We are also available by phone on 01603 593463 and by email
at [email protected].
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The Union of UEA Students
DEMOCRACY & REPRESENTATION: Representing students on university committees is the core
function of the Union; your course reps will speak for you to those who can change your course for
the better. We are also a democratic organisation, so vote, stand for election, and be a council rep!
ACTIVITIES: We have over 200 clubs and societies, but if you can't find the one for you we can help
you start your own! We also accredit volunteers, so if you're volunteering come and pick up a log
book.
ENTERTAINMENTS: We run the bars, the LCR, the Hive and the Waterfront. Come along to our gigs
and club nights, or just have a coffee in the Hive! All of the profit made through entertainment funds
our charitable activities.
ADVICE CENTRE & HOME RUN: Our Advice Centre provides free, independent advice on academic,
housing and welfare issues. Home Run is our housing bureau; we have over 1500 houses on our
housing list which all have to meet high standards of compliance.
SHOPS: We make sure that our shops offer great value and our products are ethically sourced. All of
the profit made in our shops funds our charitable activities.
YOUR UNION: All UEA students are automatically members of the Union. We listen to our members,
and we want to know what you think! So let us know on Facebook (Union of UEA Students), Twitter
(@unionuea) and the website (www.ueastudent.com), or just pop into the office in Union House.
How to avoid burn-out
“Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin, as self-neglecting. “
Henry V, William Shakespeare (1564-1616).
Caring for others can take its toll, both mentally and physically. Doctors are far from immune, in fact
they are especially vulnerable to burnout, and the sense of losing control is one of the most
important predictors. Doctors are also more prone to certain diseases, some of which are related to
alcohol consumption. Diseases relating to smoking are less common as we all know the dangers of
this habit.
Are medical students any different? I doubt it, especially as many of you are living away from home
for the first time, or juggling with being a parent, coping with financial pressures, and relationships.
How can you avoid getting into the trap of emotional burnout or physical illness? Here are some tips:
 If you are a smoker, then make a plan to stop. There are lots of people willing to help (eg
practice nurses, pharmacists).
 Eat regularly and sensibly. If you are overweight get some help and advice. You can achieve a
lot in five years. If you lose half a kilogram a month, that’s 6kg a year, 12kg in two years.
Don’t forget about group support (eg Weight Watchers).
 If you drink alcohol, have some alcohol free days and avoid binge drinking. That does not
mean you cannot enjoy yourself, but learn to recognise your limits. Some students have
come to our attention because of drunken behaviour.
 Don’t take or be involved with drugs. If caught, you will be expelled and no other medical
school will take you. Harold Shipman started taking pethidine early in his career.
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 If you are unfit start taking some exercise. You don’t have to be a fitness fanatic. Try walking
for 15 minutes a day and build it up to 30 minutes. Cycling, swimming, running or other
sports are alternatives. There are plenty of opportunities for team sports at UEA but these
are more difficult to continue after you qualify (Olympic athletes excepted!).
 Organise your work so that you have breaks and time for leisure. Some people work best in
the early morning (larks) and some late at night (owls). Either way, working for an hour or
two every day is more efficient than working for 12 hours to catch up.
 If you start getting behind with your work, ask yourself why. The internet can waste a huge
amount of time and good textbooks are almost always a better bet.
 If you run into trouble emotionally or physically, ask for help. UEA has an excellent system of
student support and a first rate medical centre.
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Index
Administrative staff .......................................48
Module teams ............................................... 44
Analytical review ...........................................31
Objectively structured clinical exam ............. 28
Attendance ....................................................52
OSCE .............................................................. 28
Banding .........................................................41
OSCE – student suggestions .......................... 37
Books – student recommended ...................... 7
Peer assessment ........................................... 33
Clinical Audit ........................................... 17, 32
Personal advisors .......................................... 53
Clinical concerns............................................24
Portfolio Reports ........................................... 32
Clinical Skills ..................................................24
Pregnancy ..................................................... 53
Consultation Skills .........................................20
Primary Care ................................................. 21
Course Progression .......................................38
Primary care tutor reports ............................ 32
Dean ..............................................................45
Problem Based Learning ............................... 15
Dean of Students Office ................................54
Reassessment................................................ 38
Disability adviser ...........................................53
Research Methods .................................. 17, 31
Dress code .....................................................25
Research Project ........................................... 32
Dyslexia adviser .............................................53
Results ........................................................... 41
Elective ..........................................................13
Secondary Care ............................................. 23
End of Year Written Exam – Student
suggestions................................................37
Seminars ....................................................... 17
Evaluation......................................................43
Feedback .......................................................40
General practitioner ......................................54
Intercalation ..................................................34
International student adviser ........................53
Lectures .........................................................17
Logbooks .......................................................29
Module 1 ......................................................... 8
Staff student liaison committee .................... 44
Student Evaluation ........................................ 43
Student representation................................. 43
Student Selected Studies (SSS) ..................... 18
Student Union Advice Centre........................ 54
Studies Outside Medicine ............................. 28
Term dates .................................................... 14
Union Advice Centre ..................................... 54
Who’s who .................................................... 45