Undergraduate Course: Preparation for Practice (Alberta route) (MBCH10022)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh Medical School |
College | College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 6 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 180 |
ECTS Credits | 90 |
| Summary | During Year 6 - Preparation for Practice students will become accustomed to assisting a doctor in a clinic or surgery, a ward, or operating theatre, and will become a valued member of the health-care team. By the end of the year students will be prepared to start Canadian Residency Programme.
The year is organised into four blocks each of 4 weeks followed by Finals exams and then a further 12 weeks for the Assistantship and Elective. There are vacations in semester 1 and 2.
Over the summer between Year 5 and Year 6, students are completing the Alberta attachment which includes the General Practice (Family Medicine) and General Medicine (General Internal Medicine) components of the Year 6 course. There is opportunity for Canadian or North American elective attachments during this time period. Students will undertake Emergency Medicine, Acute Medicine, Surgery, Anaesthetics and Critical Care on return to Edinburgh. Students may need to return to Canada for residency interviews. Following final Exams, students undertake the Assistantship. Elective is undertaken in summer prior to returning to Edinburgh for Year 6.
The attachments during Preparation for Practice are broad-based in medicine, surgery and primary care, and students will consolidate and expand their abilities to manage patients presenting with symptoms in any system, including emergencies.
During the student assistantship students will gain direct experience of working as a doctor by undertaking an apprenticeship alongside a Foundation doctor.
There are opportunities for formative feedback throughout the Course.
The Final Exams comprise written, practical and oral assessments during January/February. In addition, students are required to take formative progress tests, complete the Alberta attachment satisfactorily, submit portfolio items and complete the Assistantship satisfactorily. Students are expected to demonstrate a professional approach to their studies and conduct.
All UK medical graduates need to pass both parts of the GMC Medical Licensing Assessment (MLA) in order to be granted registration with a licence to practise. The MLA is intended to demonstrate that everyone who obtains registration with a licence to practise medicine in the UK has met a common threshold for safe practice. Students must also demonstrate their fitness to practise in order to graduate at the end of the programme.
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| Course description |
Year 6 modules include Medicine (General Internal Medicine), General Practice (Family Medicine), Medicine of the Elderly, Surgery, Emergency Medicine, Assistantship and Student Selected Component 6 (medical elective undertaken in Canada).
The teaching and learning experiences are varied and include: interactive lectures, large group interactive sessions, small group tutorials, directed reading using a range of materials including online lectures and computer based learning packages, resuscitation, clinical skills and communication workshops, clinical teaching in GP surgeries, clinics, wards, operating theatres, imaging and investigative labs.
Throughout Year 6 students are expected and encouraged to adopt an apprenticeship role under supervision, as much as possible. There are many opportunities to get involved in the care of patients though students must be proactive to make the most of them. There is support and guidance in the form of learning outcomes and core content as usual. In addition, the learning activities for each module, such as clerking patients and completing portfolio activities indicate what is required to ensure students are competent at FY1 level by the time of graduation. There are few lectures and tutorials in Year 6, other than 'bedside' teaching, but there will be guided reading and many online resources. The portfolio case summaries continue to encourage students to explore patients' needs in depth and to synthesise and summarise these needs and clinical management succinctly to colleagues. At the end of modules tutors review evidence of performance with students and provide additional written and verbal narrative comments on general progress, with suggestions for developments.
During the Assistantship, students are expected to undertake the tasks of the FY1 doctor under close supervision, to help them transfer their learning to everyday clinical practice and to gain confidence before starting work as FY1 doctors. The SSC 6 (Elective) gives students an opportunity to travel and explore clinical practice in another part of the country or the world. Students are reminded not to take on tasks beyond their competence, but the exact experiences and practical work will vary depending where they choose to go.
During the Alberta attachment students are expected to undertake the tasks of the doctor under close supervision, to help them transfer their learning to everyday clinical practice and to gain confidence before starting work as doctors.
There are many other opportunities for feedback, described below. Students are expected to reflect on this feedback, discuss it with their Supervisors and use it to further direct and enhance their own learning.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
| Additional Costs | Students will pay their own MCCQE exam fees and any preparatory material for this exam.
Students will pay for flights to and from Canada.
Students will have to travel between teaching and placement locations. Students are responsible for these costs; however, travel subsidies are available to offset travel costs and students may be able to claim expenses back for peripheral placements in Years 4, 5 and 6. Accommodation will be provided at most peripheral placements.
Students will also need access to a smart device or laptop to submit course work. Students will be required to have their own stethoscope. |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2026/27, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Full Year |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
1800
(
Other Study Hours 579,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 36,
Placement Study Abroad Hours 750,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
435 )
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| Additional Information (Learning and Teaching) |
these are not specified elsewhere
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
50 %,
Coursework
0 %,
Practical Exam
50 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
The assessment details below are split into summative assessment (assessments which must be undertaken and passed), formative assessments (opportunities for students to undertake assessment purely to gauge progress and gain feedback), and details of the professionalism requirements which all Year 6 students are expected to achieve. As professionalism is a compulsory part of the MBChB programme, these requirements are also additionally captured with the summative assessment section.
ePortfolio: Students are required to submit a clinical portfolio and submit a variety of items to this throughout the year. This includes Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) which cover the core aspects of clinical practice
For the Professionalism requirement of the year, students must have satisfactory attendance and demonstrate professional behaviour in order to progress. This is required across teaching and placement throughout the course.
WRITTEN EXAMS (50% weighting)
Students will undertake Applied Knowledge paper 1 and paper 2 in January and a resit opportunity in April.
CLINICAL EXAMS (50% weighting)
Clinical and Professional Skills Assessment (OSCE) exam will take place in January/February and a resit opportunity in May.
PROGRESSION CRITERIA
For students to progress to Graduation they must achieve a pass in Applied Knowledge Test and Clinical and Professional Skills Assessment (including a pass in 50% of the stations) and professionalism requirements.
Professionalism: Students must complete all attachments, modules and theme teaching without Professionalism Issues being raised. This requires students to
- attend all teaching and learning sessions in the clinical setting, all small-group sessions and those with patients or guest speakers and all interactive sessions
- engage by submitting evidence of required learning and assessment activities on attachment, by submitting / resubmitting all required portfolio items.
- demonstrate professional conduct listed under four GMC domains - Knowledge, skills and performance; Safety and Quality; Communication, partnership, and teamwork; Maintaining trust
If a placement raises a Concern/Issue about a student's professionalism (including attendance, engagement and professional conduct), the Board of Examiners will decide on any appropriate remediation. All Issues must have been satisfactorily addressed by the end of the course to progress to Graduation.
RESIT OPPORTUNITY
If students do not satisfactorily pass the exams, they will have the opportunity to repeat them in the resit dates in April/May. Year 6 as a second attempt. If students do not satisfactorily pass the exams as a resit, they will have the opportunity to repeat Year 6 in full as a second attempt. |
| Feedback |
FEEDBACK ON FORMATIVE TASKS
All Year 6 students will undertake two formative Knowledge Tests in Year 6. These will be undertaken online Students do not need to pass either of these Knowledge Tests, though undertaking them is compulsory.
FEEDBACK ON SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT
This will be provided when in-course work is returned or, in the case of exams, after the Board of Examiners ratifies marks, and includes:
Knowledge Tests: Students will receive a performance report.
Clinical examination: Students will receive a performance report. |
| Exam Information |
| Exam Diet |
Paper Name |
Minutes |
|
| Outwith Standard Exam Diets February | ACKT paper 1 | 120 | | | Outwith Standard Exam Diets February | ACKT Paper 2 | 120 | | | Outwith Standard Exam Diets April | ACKT Paper 1 Resit | 120 | | | Outwith Standard Exam Diets April | ACKT Paper 2 Resit | 120 | | | Outwith Standard Exam Diets December | Year 6 Progress Test | 120 | |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate appropriate generic personal and professional values and behaviours.
- Demonstrate appropriate skills in clinical practice.
- Demonstrate their knowledge through scholarly application to the care of patients in practice.
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Reading List
| All information on learning resources available to students is held on the virtual learning environment (Learn). |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
MBChB graduates will gain the University of Edinburgh's Graduate Attributes (https://www.ed.ac.uk/employability/graduate-attributes) and will meet all of the General Medical Council's outcomes for graduates (https://www.gmc-uk.org/education/standards-guidance-and-curricula/standards-and-outcomes/outcomes-for-graduates). |
| Special Arrangements |
Students are required to complete an Alberta attachment commencing in first 10 weeks of this course, having already spent 6 weeks in Alberta. Edinburgh will provide a travel and subsistence subsidy to students for the period of time spent in Alberta. |
| Keywords | Internal&family medicine,medicine of elderly,surgery,emergency medicine,anaesthetics,critical care |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Mr Gavin Brown
Tel:
Email: gavin.brown@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Heather Ferguson
Tel:
Email: Heather.Ferguson@ed.ac.uk |
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