Teaching and assessment for Medicine MBChB

You will learn through a range of methods, including:

• lectures
• small group teaching
• case based teaching
• interactive quizzes
• formative assessment
• hands-on dissection sessions
• simulation-based learning
• ward-based experience
• clinical placements
• digital resources

Some assessments will take place throughout the course, your portfolio for example. Others will be exams that you'll take at the end of a year.

You'll be assessed in a range of ways, including:

• essays
• case discussions
• self-directed research
• online exams – usually multiple choice
• anatomy spot tests
• OSCE
• portfolio

Objective Structured Clinical Exams (OSCEs)

These exams test your clinical capabilities through a series of scenarios. You'll be faced with a problem in our simulated ward and assessed on how you deal with this. You'll either perform a clinical task or respond to an actor pretending to have symptoms. These assessments are a great way to show your knowledge and practical skills. They also show if you can stay calm and make good decisions under pressure.

Professional portfolio

Each year of the programme, you will be asked to reflect on your progress. This helps ensure you have developed core skills, alongside aspects of professional practice.

Medical Licensing Assessment (MLA)

All doctors practicing in the UK need to pass the MLA. This has two parts: an applied knowledge test and a professional skills assessment. You'll undertake this assessment so that by the time you graduate, you are able to be licensed to practice as a doctor.

Levels 1-3

Foundations of Medicine block

Level 1 will start with an introductory block where you'll cover the scientific principles that underpin the function of the human body.

You'll learn the basic principles of the normal structure and function of body systems, and be introduced to broad categories of disease (for example, infection and cancer).

Systems-based teaching

You'll then move on to systems-based teaching, which looks at the body's organ systems. Weeks within these blocks are usually themed according to the specific but common things patients may present with.

Classroom-based teaching is complemented by the development of your vocational skills through clinical skills practice, meeting real patients and ward experience. This is something you'll gain from the start of Level 1.

In Dundee we use a spiral curriculum. This essentially means that from day one, we lay the building blocks needed for all aspects of a medical career and keep revisiting and adding to these as you progress through the course.

Clinical skills

Throughout your studies you'll build on your clinical skills in our Clinical Skills Centre (CSC) – a purpose built simulation-based education facility that is made up of fully-equipped replica wards. This means that by the time you graduate, you'll be able to complete important tasks, like taking a case history or a blood sample with confidence, accuracy, and efficiency. 

Within the CSC, procedure rooms are used to deliver training on a variety of areas of medical practice. These range from simple, but important, skills such as appropriate hand hygiene to more complicated skills and procedures used in medical specialties such as ophthalmology.

This includes infection control, assessing and documenting vital signs, communicating with patients and other healthcare professionals.

The Centre also has a multipurpose simulation suite which allows you to participate in simulated exercises, including dealing with trauma victims, cardiac arrest scenarios, and managing a deteriorating patient. We use a mix of mannequins, actors, and real patients throughout our simulation training.

Student selected components (SSCs)

SSCs are self-directed opportunities for you to focus on an area of medicine which interests you.  This is achieved by spending time on placement or undertaking a project under the supervision of a subject expert. Examples of recent SSCs include:

• clinical placement in different specialities (pathology, microbiology, biochemistry, surgery)
• community outreach projects
• project collaboration with other schools i.e. arts and humanities
• quality improvement projects
• development work in innovation and technology
• SSCs are delivered in years 2, 3 and 5 of the programme. 

Levels 4-5

Clinical teaching

Levels 4-5, focuses on developing your practical skills in preparation for your role as a junior doctor.

You'll start with a transition block that will help you learn how to get the most out of your ward-based learning. Throughout these years, you'll rotate around a variety of hospitals and primary care centres in a series of clinical attachments where you'll explore a wide range of clinical problems, looking at the patient as a whole rather than focusing on specific disease entities. This strategy will ensure patients' concerns and problems are central to your practice.

Clinical attachments

There are a variety of clinical attachments throughout both  levels 

Level 4 includes spending time in all clinical specialties taught earlier in the programme.  Attachments in level 5 include spending time as a Foundation Assistant working with the same clinical time for 8 weeks, shadowing and learning from the ward doctors.

Electives

During Level 5, you will have the opportunity to undertake an eight-week elective, which can be overseas - this is a period of clinical practice that you'll organise and will allow you to focus on your own objectives.