Course Information
You will be an integral part of a clinical team during year 2
At Imperial, the MBBS course structure is varied, ranging from lectures, group tutorials, practicals and problem based learning (PBL) covering subjects as diverse as neuroscience and epidemiology, to training in GP clinics and ward rounds. The development of your communication skills continues throughout the course. The chance to spend a few weeks in a novel environment during your elective in the final year gives you the opportunity to study medicine in a different setting which could be anywhere, such as the Australian outback or a shanty town in Africa.
Learning on the wards
From the first hospital-based clinical experience in Year 2 of the course to all subsequent clinical attachments, you will be an integral part of a clinical team: you will clerk patients on the wards, follow them from admission to discharge and present your patients to the rest of the clinical team. You may be required to present a review of the medical literature relevant to your patients' illnesses and you will therefore need an understanding of both the patients' clinical management and the relevant clinical research. During most of the clinical course, you will be assigned academic tutors who provide bedside teaching. Small-group teaching supplements this tutorial support.
Learning in the community
Community-based teaching is an important part of the clinical course, including early contact in a general practice in Year 1 of the course, and it subsequently builds up students' experiences of primary care and, wherever possible, the links to hospital-based teaching. Committed and trained GP tutors teach and assess students in this part of the course.
Learning independently
In addition to the formal components of the course you will be expected to direct your own learning, identifying your weaknesses and actively pursuing areas of interest. Appropriate basic generic skills are gained at an early stage through group PBL training and problem-solving in a clinical setting provides further training. To support you with your learning and research you will have access to a network of facilities within the College and its associated hospitals, including libraries and computing facilities. In addition, the School of Medicine's invaluable Intranet provides an important source of information about most aspects of the undergraduate course. Use of all the available facilities will enable you to keep up to date with the current research, including the latest data on the best treatments for particular disorders.
You will be taught by College and NHS staff, including clinicians, research scientists and other health care professionals. Most of your teachers are actively involved in basic or clinical research, which promotes an exciting and stimulating atmosphere for learning. Teachers keep abreast of modern educational practices by attending specialist courses.
