Medicine

Do you want to make a difference? With patient experience and student satisfaction at its heart, this hands-on, forward-thinking degree will give you the knowledge, skills and confidence to become an outstanding doctor primed for tomorrow’s healthcare needs. Nurturing critical thinking and a caring approach to your medical practice, we’ll help you develop the clinical and communication, teamwork and leadership skills for a top career in medicine.

• Gain meaningful and immediate clinical experience with placements starting at the beginning of Year 1.

• Benefit from close relationships with our principal NHS hospital partners.

• Develop communication, teamwork, leadership and management skills essential for modern medical careers and high-quality, empathic patient care.

• Use the latest in inclusive anatomy models, enhanced visualisation tools and Anatomage tables in our Life Sciences Resource Centre.

• Make a difference to community health through hands-on, real world advocacy and quality improvement projects.

• Explore medicine in different social and cultural contexts through a medical elective and unique Special Study Units such as ‘Medicine in Society’.

• Practise your clinical and communication skills in specially designed, high-specification replicas of hospital wards, emergency rooms and simulated patients in our Clinical Skills Resource Centre.

• Your learning will follow best practice at the cutting edge of medical knowledge, delivered by internationally renowned teachers and researchers.

• Take part in expert and student-led discussions integrating clinical case studies, medical science breakthroughs and ethical issues.

• Share knowledge, experience and support with your peers through a variety of small group teaching approaches and a host of vibrant student societies.

• Acquire skills from other disciplines through our Intercalated degrees programme.

• All students spend years 1 and 2 in Plymouth. In years 3-5, students will normally spend at least one year in either Taunton or Torbay in addition to Plymouth, also travelling to GP practices from these main hospital sites. This provides you with diverse placement opportunities and learning experiences across our NHS partners.

• Equip yourself for success in postgraduate Foundation training and beyond. We consistently excel in the General Medical Council survey of Foundation Doctors’ Preparedness for Practice.

In the first two years, you’ll learn the core scientific foundations of medicine within a clinical context. We’ve structured our curriculum around the human life cycle, so in the first year you’ll study human physical and psychological development from conception to old age. You’ll learn from real-life clinical case studies and experience healthcare in a range of community settings, meeting patients and service users, and learning from health and social care professionals.

In the second year, you’ll revisit the human life cycle, this time with an emphasis on disease, pathological processes, and the human and social impact of illness and disease. You’ll do a series of placements in a single general practice, enabling you to learn about long-term health issues and see teamwork in action.

In your third and fourth years, you’ll learn more about clinical practice and spend more time in a patient-centred learning environment. Completing a series of hospital and general practice-based community placements, you’ll gain valuable experience in a wide range of clinical settings and see first hand how the NHS works as a team to deliver patient care. Year three focuses on three ‘Pathways of Care’: Acute Care, Ward Care and Integrated Ambulatory Care.

You’ll continue working and learning in hospital and general practice settings, further developing your communication, clinical, problem-solving and analytical skills. The three ‘Pathways of Care’ continue in year four with a focus on: Acute Care, Palliative Care/ Oncology and Continuing Care.

You’ll now be all set to apply the knowledge, skills and confidence you’ve acquired over the first four years by working ‘on the job’, as part of a healthcare team in action, based in either Derriford or Torbay hospital. You’ll become more assured when dealing with clinical situations, and develop an in-depth understanding of the principles of practice in the NHS. Supplementing your independent learning with a portfolio of indicative presentations, you’ll also have the opportunity to do an elective in a different social or cultural context.

The modules shown for this course or programme are those being studied by current students, or expected new modules. Modules are subject to change depending on year of entry.