Keele University Prospectus Undergraduate | 2016 | Page 160

HEALTH

Medicine
Overview

The aim of the Medicine course is to produce doctors
who are equipped to practise into the second quarter
of the 21st century. The emphasis is on graduating
excellent clinicians who have a deep understanding
of the scientific foundations of medicine and high
levels of clinical expertise. From the outset, studies
will be centred on patients and patient problems.
Understanding human life requires study of the
human body at all levels: molecular; cellular; systems;
the complete organism and interactions with
the environment and other members of society.
Throughout the course there is an emphasis on
feedback to help you improve your knowledge,
understanding and performance. Many different
specialities contribute to this pool of understanding,
and an integrative approach is used to enable
acquisition of the understanding of people, health
and disease which is necessary for the effective
practice of medicine.

Course content

The MBChB Honours Degree at Keele University
is designed to ensure you, as a graduate, meet
the necessary standards in terms of knowledge,
skills and attitudes that new doctors should have
as identified by the GMC in its publication,
‘Tomorrow’s Doctors’.
The Keele curriculum is a modern, spiral,
highly-integrated medical curriculum which
combines a range of learning strategies, including
early clinical experience, integrated communication
and clinical skills teaching, practical sessions
including dissection, problem-based learning,
lectures and seminars. You will have extensive
experience of clinical placements in both primary
and secondary care settings and in the community
sector and, by following our ‘spiral’ curriculum,
you will be able to revisit topics at different points
in the course, first learning the relevant scientific
foundations before developing an understanding of
the pathological and clinical aspects of that topic.

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You will experience integration at all levels, guided
by three themes which run throughout the whole
course. They are:
1. Doctor as a scholar and scientist
2. Doctor as a practitioner
3. Doctor as a professional
You will experience inter-professional learning
at several stages of the course, commencing in the
first year with a series of inter-professional group
activities involving medical, nursing, pharmacy
and physiotherapy students at Keele. These
sessions are designed to promote, not only
mutual understanding of roles, but also effective
collaboration, both of which are essential to
developing the professional teamwork required in
modern, high-quality health care. In the later years
of the course, you will expand your involvement in
this way of learning by working with students on
other health professional courses and by you taking
part in collaborative clinical assessments.
Diversity of student interest and career options is
fostered through the Student Selected Component
programme. During each academic year of the
course, students are offered a choice of learning
experience that allows either breadth, (including
exposure to wider areas of clinical practice but also
the opportunity to learn within the context of, for
examples, the arts and humanities), or depth (more
specialist clinical knowledge). Over the whole five
years, students will be able to gain a diverse range
of such experiences, building on natural aptitudes
and providing for a basis for future career interest.
Further opportunities for diversity are encouraged
through intercalation.
You can opt to take a year out of your undergraduate
medical studies in order to study a subject area
in greater depth before returning to complete the
medical course. An intercalated degree provides
you with an opportunity to pursue an additional
qualification in a medicine-related subject that
interests you, acquire a better understanding of
basic biomedical sciences, medical humanities
and research methodologies, publish scientific papers
and present at conferences. Opportunities available
include studying at bachelor’s level after the second
year or master’s level after the fourth year.