This is a community based placement for all Year 2 students at Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry. Students need to continue to meet patients, building on their experiences in Medicine in Society in Year 1 and continue their professional development with the benefit of authentic clinical experiences.

General practice will work as a setting which will bring to life the PBL scenarios, contextualising and broadening your learning and encouraging you to think about the wider, more varied, range of disease presentation. The opportunity to actively engage with patients in a safe, yet authentic, clinical environment will allow you to reflect on your communication skills and your attitudes to patients and illness, forming an important aspect of their professional development. 

You will be at a GP practice for 3 hours each Tuesday morning from 9-12 am on 12 occasions during the year alternating with your year 2 MedSoc placement;

you will be in a group of 4 students.

It is expected that each morning will begin with a preparatory tutorial, where you will have an opportunity to discuss your learning needs.

This will be followed by some clinical activity e.g. meeting a patient whose conditions match the PBL units that you are undertaking at the time, examining a patient or practising examination skills on each other, attending a clinic, undertaking practice based investigations (spirometry, ECG recording, blood glucose monitoring, urinalysis), or interpreting laboratory results.

You will also have opportunities to practice communication skills.

You will work in pairs for these activities and will be expected to give feedback to your colleagues; you will also receive feedback from your tutor.

The morning will finish with a debriefing tutorial when you will have the opportunity to ask questions and identify learning needs for forthcoming sessions 

Escorted Visits

These refer to visits to patients in their own homes by members of the primary care team accompanied by the medical student. The patient's permission for the medical student to be present during the home visit should be obtained.

Unescorted visits

Where students are expected to visit patients in their own homes without an accompanying healthcare worker the supervising clinician will have previously selected and consented an appropriate patient for such an activity. Patients will have been given details about the purpose of the visit, the timing and the names of the students. Students should ideally visit in pairs, but if they are on a single-student attachment and have met the patient previously and wish to undertake a visit on their own this can be safely managed.

If the following are adhered to all should be well:

1. Know where you are going and plan your journey
2. Ask for help and instructions from your tutor if unsure
3. Ensure your practice knows where you are going and when you are expected back
4. Be clear about the purpose of your visit and how to conduct yourself
5. Always carry your identification card, adequate finances to get you home, your mobile phone and an A-Z map
6. Terminate and excuse yourself from the visit if for any reason you feel unsafe

Students are asked to discuss with their tutors any planned visits they feel uncomfortable with, in which case the tutor will accompany you.

You can access details of your practice if you have lost the information, provided you know the rough location and name from: http://www.nhs.uk/england/

In London you plan a journey using the Transport for London website: http://www.journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk/index.html 

Please remind all students of the importance of patient confidentiality when they begin their placement with you, this should include outlining your practice procedures to maintain confidentiality and examples of how they might inadvertently breach confidentiality e.g. discussing a patient in a public area within or outside the practice; discussing one patient with another; or including patient identifiable data on notes they have made as a resource for their own learning.

• For further information please see – GMC guidance - Medical Students: Professional values and fitness to practise: http://www.gmc-uk.org/education/undergraduate/professional_behaviour.asp
• Or the GMC guide to Confidentiality which includes some case studies and learning resources: http://www.gmc-uk.org/guidance/ethical_guidance/confidentiality.asp
• and includes information specifically related to sharing information with medical students: http://www.gmc- uk.org/Confidentiality_disclosing_info_education_2009.pdf_27493403.pdf

Students will be seeing patients either in the GP surgery or visiting them in their own home. They have been asked to bear in mind the following:

• Patients have a right to confidentiality; therefore please ensure you do not discuss any personal patient information outside of the practice.
• Although patients should have been informed prior to the session that medical students will be present, you must respect their wishes if they decline to be interviewed or examined by any student.
• Treat all patients and staff with courtesy and respect, they are generally going out of their way to provide a valuable learning experience for you.
• Please ensure that you are neatly attired.
• Please remember that, even though the tutor may have gained consent from the
• patient, it is important that you reaffirm that consent personally.