GP placement structure

Phase 1 - Early clinical placements

Year 1

Students undertake three remote half-day placements in general practice, where they will take turns in consulting with real patients and receive peer feedback facilitated by a GP tutor. This aims to help them improve their history taking and presentation skills. Students also undertake three remote “Lifestyle Hub” sessions. In these sessions they learn more about how to promote and manage lifestyle factors which can impact on health and disease. These sessions are facilitated online by a GP tutor.

Year 2

Students undertake four remote half-day placements with a similar structure to Year 1. Toward the end of the Year 2, students go in their groups to visit a GP practice where they undertake a half-day placement to learn more about chronic disease and clinical reasoning. During this session they will conduct a community consultation in a patient’s own home and then have a tutorial with a GP tutor to discuss their cases.

Phase 2 - Consultation skills

Year 3 – Consolidation of Clinical Skills

Students undertake 4-week in-person placements in GP practices, where they will see patients in their own surgeries, supervised by a GP tutor. They also have a small group cluster session each week, with the preparatory material for these provided by the Keele Academic GP team. Students also complete a Prescribing Poster, where they review the evidence surrounding a medication of their choice and conduct a small audit of patients in the practice. 

Year 4 – Developing Consultation Skills

During this module, we aim for students to grow from reporters to interpreters and managers of information through developing their clinical reasoning skills. Students undertake 4-week placements in GP practices which include seven clinical sessions (conducted in pairs), one self-study session, and one online teaching day per week.
They also attend an online Health Inequalities Day facilitated by the Academic GP team.

Phase 3 - Student assistantships

Year 5

In this 10-week placement we expect that students will lead on as many consultations as possible in practice, supported by their GP tutor. In most cases, they will attend placements as single students.

Students also undertake several other learning opportunities during this placement. These include a weekly teaching day, an additional 1-day cluster session per placement and a written reflection on Palliative Care. 

In addition, students will undertake a Quality-Improvement Activity in their practices. The topic of this is flexible and should be agreed between the student and GP tutor. If they wish, students can also submit this to the University as a poster for the chance to win a prize.