Our priority is to keep our students and staff safe and support their wellbeing, while protecting our community from the risks of Covid-19 on our site, based inside a hospital. We have listened to feedback and preferences from our student community about St George’s as a place to study.
We won’t be making any significant changes to the content of our programmes, but there will be some changes to the way they are delivered. Please see below for further details of how this may affect this course.
If government advice changes, we may need to update our plans, but our approach is designed to make it possible to continue with much of the on-campus teaching planned. If we do need to make changes, we will update this information, and will keep current students and offer holders informed by email.
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Location of study
In Years 1 and 2, all university-based face-to-face teaching will take place at St George’s, University of London on the campus that we share with St George’s Hospital in Tooting, with appropriate social distancing and infection control measures in place. We have not explored alternative locations for teaching and have no immediate plans to do so. If government advice on social distancing changes, we will consider ways in which we can deliver teaching on-site in a manner that is safe for students and staff.
For the clinical practice years (Years 3, 4 and 5), clinical placement providers will continue to offer placements as they have in the previous years. We will use our existing procedures for allocating students to placements. It is possible that if there is permanent health care configuration change as a result of Covid-19, that placement providers may necessarily change, but this will be done to achieve the required clinical experience and curricular outcomes for students.
In Year 2, all university based face-to-face teaching will take place at St George’s, University of London on the campus that we share with St George’s Hospital in Tooting with appropriate social distancing and infection control measures in place. We have not explored alternative locations for teaching and have no immediate plans to do so. If government advice on social distancing changes, we will consider ways in which we can deliver teaching on-site in a manner that is safe for students and staff.
T, P and F
For the clinical practice years (Years 3, 4 and 5), clinical placement providers will continue to offer placements as they have in the previous years. We will use our existing procedures for allocating students to placements. It is possible that if there is permanent health care configuration change as a result of Covid-19, that placement providers may necessarily change, but this will be done to achieve the required clinical experience and curricular outcomes for students.
Course content
St George’s is not making any significant changes to the content of the Medicine MBBS5 programme in relation to Covid-19.
A curriculum review project, initiated in April 2019, is being rolled out for course delivery from September 2021 onwards for Year 1 students. This is detailed on our main content pages.
The first 2 years of the course comprise a series of compulsory modules in which there is integrated teaching from the core educational themes which drive the knowledge and skills to achieving qualification as a doctor. We have been able to incorporate student and staff feedback from the experience of online teaching delivery during the pandemic into our new curriculum, informing which content continues to be delivered online and which will be delivered face-to-face subject to any Covid-19-related restrictions. This is detailed in the next section (below) on this page.
Non-Covid-19 health and safety factors are impacting on access to the dissection room, as detailed on the main course pages. At least for the first term, anatomy delivery will take the form of online, interactive practical sessions, recorded dissection room videos and guided virtual dissection using ‘Complete Anatomy’ until the cohort can be accommodated safely in the dissection room. When it is safe to do so, which is not expected to be any sooner than early 2022, Year 1 students will have an initial orientation visit to the dissection room, and practical dissection sessions will resume.
There are primary and secondary care placements within the community from the start of the course. We are planning for all primary and secondary care placements to be delivered as scheduled in 2021/22. If for any reason this is not possible, some may be replaced with virtual placement experiences. Alternative virtual experiences are also already prepared for any community placements that are not able to host students in person during 2021/22. All students on placement will be expected to undertake a Covid-19 risk assessment and adhere to local NHS provider working patterns and guidance. In some instances, placement experience may be supplemented by remote learning experiences. We have already prepared to cover learning normally delivered in these environments if it is not possible to attend clinical environments if temporary local restrictions are required, such that the content will be unchanged.
Apart from the annual review and refresh cycle, we have not made any major changes to the curriculum of the clinical practice years (Years 3, 4 and 5). The content of the course, the skills to be acquired, and development of the professional attitudes, abilities and behaviours to be acquired are unchanged. There will be minor changes to the detail of some skills – for example some clinical procedures are currently unsafe to be performed on real patients during the Covid-19 pandemic (e.g., airway management, throat examination), and so simulation may be used instead of learning with real patients. Although critical care and anaesthetics placements (final year) were suspended during 2020-21, with the content and skills being taught via lectures and small group teaching and simulation instead of experience in the clinical environment, this is resuming for the 2021/22 academic year and we anticipate should continue beyond that.
There are student-selected components (SSCs) threaded throughout the course. Due to reduced capacity for students at placement sites, we anticipate there may be ongoing reduced opportunities to do clinical attachments for these components of the course, but there will be an expanded range of remote opportunities covering similar areas, including in clinical sciences, health service delivery, research and humanities. We cannot predict at this stage how the pandemic might impact on the potential for overseas travel in the final year SSC (elective) in the future, but we will support this providing it is safe to do so, and ensure alternative local opportunities if required.
How the course is being delivered
All years
The online components of the course will be designed to balance interactive real-time sessions with lecturers and other students alongside self-paced independent study. Students will have clear learning pathways through the activities they are expected to engage with, and there will be opportunities to check learning and progress. Access to course materials, including curriculum information, learning resources, and, where applicable, recordings of live lectures/sessions will continue to be via the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), Canvas. Hands-on practical teaching including clinical and communication skills, and many small group tutorials (dependent on government guidance for universities) will be delivered on campus with appropriate social distancing and personal protective equipment (PPE) measures put in place, and with controls on the number of people in each location. If restrictions increase, some early years sessions may be delivered remotely, or rescheduled until later in the course. Students in Years 1 (and 2) will come to the campus on average at least twice a week for scheduled face-to-face teaching for sessions which require a physical presence and/or direct interaction with others – for example, learning clinical skills, communication skills sessions, and a proportion of small group tutorials.
We are planning for all primary and secondary care placements to be delivered as scheduled in 2021/22. If for any reason this is not possible, some may be replaced with virtual placement experiences. Alternative virtual experiences are also already prepared for any community placements that are not able to host students in person during 2021/22. Primary and secondary care placements for students in Years 3, 4 and 5 have been continuing on site since early autumn 2020, including through pandemic peaks, and we expect this to remain the case in the future. All our providers are now experienced in continuing to provide an educational experience, and adapting this as required depending on the prevalence of Covid-19 and NHS service capacity during peaks, and the consequent risks to students of being on placement. This is supported by now well-established infection control policies, and the ongoing commitment of our providers, backed up by Health Education England and the General Medical Council (GMC) to keep students on placement now that organisations have had time to prepare.
In the clinical practice years (Years 3, 4 and 5), the curriculum is driven by 15 clinical outcomes which change in content each year and by speciality. These outcomes, together with the list of priority conditions for each speciality, drive your learning as you progress through the course and ultimately graduate. In 2021, using those 15 outcomes and priority case framework, we will teach to the same outcomes using a blended approach to support clinical placement experience, informed by the St George’s online educational framework, which involves:
- Remote delivery for teaching where suitable: knowledge dissemination, clinical interventions and videos of operations, case discussions, clinical reasoning, diagnostic investigations, treatments, presentations, debates, and quizzes. Staff have been trained in adapting teaching for remote learning using the online education framework.
- More focused clinical placements which are orientated to the safety of the student and the learning and practice of skills which medical students need to develop as doctors in the clinical workplace: witnessing and participating in patient safety processes; clinical communication and examination of patients; real-time investigation and treatment of patients; teamworking; multi-disciplinary team working; and practical procedures. We anticipate providing all speciality placements, including contact with patients who may have, or do have Covid-19, where this is essential for student learning.
- Enhanced provision of digital resources on Canvas, our virtual learning environment. We are steadily increasing the digital resources relating to clinical medicine which are available for medical students to review, if clinical experience available to the students on placement dips again, as it did in March 2020.
- Increased face-to-face, remote, low and high-fidelity simulation where required.
Even if the Covid-19 pandemic disappears, the success of our blended learning programme while placements were closed has led us to continue with parts of the blended delivery that were considered valuable by students, e.g., video tutorials about operations, but returning to the delivery of clinical education in healthcare environments for those clinical outcomes which cannot be otherwise taught.
Additional teaching about personal protective equipment (PPE), Covid-19, and how to learn effectively in a remote or blended environment has been developed.
Module changes published*
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Anatomy teaching across all year 1 and 2 modules
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2021/22
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Dissection room practical experience replaced with online interactive practical sessions, recorded dissection room videos and guided virtual dissection using ‘Complete Anatomy’ at least for term one
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Anatomy teaching across all year 2 modules
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2021/22
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Dissection room practical experience replaced interactive practical sessions, recorded dissection room videos and guided virtual dissection using ‘Complete Anatomy’ at least for term one
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*This was Covid-19 related in 202021, but changes to non-Covid-19 health and safety regulations have precluded return to the dissection room until these are resolved as detailed on the main course pages
Course length
We expect to deliver the course within the planned timescales to enable successful students to progress through the programme and graduate without delay. Information about contingencies for teaching, placement experience and assessments to facilitate this in the event of further outbreaks of Covid-19 are detailed in other sections.
2, T, P and F year students
We expect to deliver the course within the planned timescales to enable successful students to progress from one year of the programme to the next and to graduate without delay. Information about contingencies for teaching, placement experience and assessments to facilitate this in the event of further outbreaks of Covid-19 are detailed in other sections. However, for students in Final year whose personal circumstances preclude attending placements at times of high covid-prevalence, in the event of further outbreaks there is a possibility that graduation may be delayed until they are able to complete all placements.
Assessments
The applied clinical and scientific knowledge, clinical skills and professional attributes of our students is assessed in a variety of ways. These include formal written examinations (mainly Single Best Answer with some Short Answer Questions), Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) and a professionalism portfolio that varies in content over the duration of the course.
We intend to carry out all of the assessments as outlined in the programme specification for students in 2021/22.
Written assessments will be in the format previously specified, and delivered online, as will be the case for the national Medical Licensing Assessment (MLA) at Finals. Whether cohorts are required to be on campus, or expected to access assessments remotely will depend on local or national health conditions restrictions in relation to large gatherings at the time, and site capacity depending on social distancing requirements. We successfully delivered online assessments in 2020 and 2021. All assessments will be invigilated either in person (on site), or via remote proctoring if students are sitting remotely. Students with special circumstances (meaning they would find it difficult to find suitable space and facilities to sit assessment remotely) will be able to take assessments on campus.
If conditions mean large-scale OSCEs for all cohorts are not possible, our contingency plan is to either use remote clinical examinations or to defer assessment until later in the academic year, or even following year. Decisions on this will depend upon the degree and extent of disruption at the time and throughout the academic year. The professionalism portfolio will be assessed as described in the programme specification. Again, if health conditions interrupt the academic year, we may have to modify certain elements of this assessment. In the first year, however, major changes should not be required.
All students in all years
The undergraduate Medicine MBBS5 programme is accredited and quality assured by the General Medical Council (GMC). We have discussed the changes that we are making with our regulators who have confirmed that the programme continues to meet their standards. Graduates will, therefore, be eligible to apply for provisional GMC registration when they complete the programme.
2, T, P and F year students
We assess the applied clinical and scientific knowledge, clinical skills and professional attributes of our students in a variety of ways. The methods that we use include formal written examinations (mainly Single Best Answer with some Short Answer Questions), Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) and a professionalism portfolio that varies in content over the duration of the course.
We intend to carry out all of the assessments as normal for students in 2021/22. Written assessments will be of the same format as specified and delivered online as will be the case for the national Medical Licensing Assessment at Finals. Whether cohorts are required to be on campus or expected to access assessment remotely will depend on local or national conditions in relation to large gatherings at the time, and site capacity depending on social distancing requirements. We successfully delivered online assessments in 2020 and 2021. All assessments will be invigilated either in person (on site), or via remote proctoring if students are sitting remotely. Students with special circumstances meaning they would find it difficult to find suitable space and facilities to sit assessment remotely will be able to take assessments on campus.
If conditions mean large scale OSCEs are not possible, our contingency plan is either to use remote clinical examinations, to use a clinical portfolio-based approach, or to defer assessment. We have already looked at and trialled remote OSCE delivery platforms as a back-up plan. We do not anticipate the need for their use, but will revisit this if the situation requires it. Decisions on this will depend upon the degree and extent of disruption at the time and throughout the academic year. If that happens, graduation for some final year students may be delayed until you are able to complete all assessments, because we have any obligation to our regulators to confirm that our students have met the clinical and practical outcomes for the programme before they graduate. This was not an issue in 2020-21, so we think very unlikely it will be so in 2021-22.
The professionalism portfolio will be assessed as described in the programme specification. Again, if Covid-19 impacts on clinical contact time on placements, we will have to modify certain elements of this assessment. We may need to use ‘student selected components’ and ‘elective time’ to ensure you have adequate clinical placement time. Where this is required, and a student has as a result not been able to complete an SSC or elective, any associated assessment requirements will also be amended to reflect the change. We have a formal, institutional process for any assessment amendments that are requires and this has worked well so far when needed. Workplace-based assessments are another important part of this assessment which may be affected by reduced clinical contact time where the make-up and numbers may need to be modified proportionally to any disruption. All other strands of this portfolio will be delivered as normal. This was less of a problem in 2020-21 than we had prepared for, and we expect few, if any adjustments will be required in future years.
Placements and essential hands-on learning
In all years of the course, the programme does include essential practical elements (clinical examination skills, procedures and communication skills) that require some learning and assessment on campus, as well as on clinical placements in a range of NHS settings. We have identified the elements of learning and assessment essential to progression and graduation that must be delivered on-site, and aim to deliver these as planned in 2021/22 with appropriate social distancing and personal protective measures.
Clinical placement providers are continuing to offer placements as they have in previous years, but with reduced capacity in some areas, and with substantial changes to how services are delivered. Their capacity to offer placements may change if, in the event of a further outbreak of Covid-19, delivering care to affected patients becomes the overriding priority.
If that happens, it is expected that students will remain on their placements and continue to benefit from the experience of apprentice-style learning in a clinical environment, although opportunities in some specialist areas may be reduced. We will limit the impact on students where possible. We will rotate students through the sites that are continuing to accept students and, where necessary and possible, we will use remote and simulation facilities to offer a comparable clinical experience.
2, T, P and F
The programme does include practical elements (clinical examination skills, procedures and communication skills) that require delivery on campus, as well as experience in clinical placements in a range of NHS settings. We have identified the elements or learning and assessment essential to progression and graduation that have to be delivered on-site, and were able to deliver these during 2020/21 with appropriate social distancing and personal protective measures.
Clinical placement providers are continuing to offer placements as they have in the previous years, but with reduced capacity in some areas, and with substantial changes to how services are delivered. Their capacity to offer placements may change if, in the event of a further outbreak of Covid-19, delivering care to affected patients becomes the overriding priority.
If that happens, it is expected that students will remain on placements and continue to benefit from the experience of apprentice-style learning in a clinical environment, although opportunities in some specialist areas may be reduced. We will limit the impact on students where possible. We will rotate students through the sites that are continuing to accept students and, where necessary and possible, we will use remote and simulation facilities to offer a comparable clinical experience. For continuing students, it may be possible to delay placements until the following academic year to protect their safety.
Additional costs
We do not expect students to incur any extra costs over and above those that we have advertised on the course page.
As a result of our courses beginning with most lectures and some tutorials being delivered online, you will need a personal laptop or computer and reliable access to the internet to participate in online learning. Information is available on the recommended device specification.
If you are worried you might struggle to meet these requirements, you should email IThardship@sgul.ac.uk so we can look at support options for you.
Personal protective equipment in line with guidance at the time will be provided for free to students who attend for onsite practical sessions at the university, and also to those on clinical placements, as long as the NHS supply chain to those placements is maintained.
2, T, P and F year students
We do not expect students to incur any extra costs over and above the normal level, as previously advertised on the course page.
Personal protective equipment in line with guidance at the time will be provided to students who attend for onsite practical sessions at the university will go on clinical placements, as long as the NHS supply chain to those placements is maintained.
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Additional cost items
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Cost
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Notes
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Students will be expected to travel to placements at different locations throughout the programme.
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Costs of travel vary depending on students’ placement allocation.
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Students will be expected to cover costs of travel to placement. Students who are in receipt of a NHS bursary these costs will be reimbursed in the Clinical Years (T, P and F), subject to specific criteria. Travel to placements local to St George’s (within Greater London) is not normally reimbursed.
In the final year of the course, some students may need to pay for accommodation costs for their five-week General Practice placement; a loan is available for this and those in receipt of a NHS Bursary can reclaim this cost (according to specific criteria).
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Course timetable
This is a full-time course. Timetables are normally available 1 month before the start of each module or placement.
While we make every effort to ensure that timetables are as student-friendly as possible, students should expect to be on placement, or available for virtual or campus-based teaching Monday through Friday during normal working hours, apart from Wednesday afternoons which are normally reserved for sports and cultural activities.
In later years of the course, some placements also offer, or occasionally require out-of-hours shifts with on-call teams (other than for students with approved exceptional circumstances).
It is the course team’s intention, in-line with current public health advice, to deliver small group face-to-face teaching on site. This currently includes twice-weekly Problem-Based Learning (PBL), clinical and communication skills. As covered elsewhere, we hope at least some anatomy lessons may also resume on site, though no earlier than January 2022. All lectures for at least the first two terms will be delivered online.
The situation will be reviewed throughout the first term, and should there be a need to increase or reduce face-to-face teaching, all student cohorts will be informed in good time.
Year 2
It is the course team’s intention, in-line with current public health advice, to deliver small group face-to-face teaching on site, this would average at least twice weekly onsite teaching, for clinical and communication skills or selected tutorials. As covered elsewhere, we hope at least some anatomy may also resume on site though no earlier than January 2022. All lectures for at least the first two terms will be delivered online. The situation will be reviewed throughout the first term, and should there be a need to increase or reduce face-to-face teaching all student cohorts will be informed in good time
Years T, P and F
This is a full-time course. Timetables are normally available 1 month before the start of each module or placement. While we make every effort to ensure that timetables are as student-friendly as possible, students should expect to be on placement, or available for virtual or campus-based teaching Monday – Friday during normal working hours, other than Wednesday afternoons which are normally reserved for sports and cultural activities. In later years of the course, some placements also offer, or occasionally require other than for students with approved exceptional circumstances, out of hours shifts with on-call teams.
Term dates
Consenting to these changes
At enrolment or re-enrolment you consented to the changes we anticipated as a result of the pandemic, which were outlined on the ‘Covid-19 updates’ tab of your course page at: www.sgul.ac.uk/study/courses.
The changes that we are making are the consequence of current public health advice and our need to anticipate changes to that advice. Our capacity to offer alternatives is therefore limited. We do not feel that the changes will adversely affect students.
If you wish to avoid these changes (e.g., by taking a year out from your studies) please discuss this directly with your course team in the first instance.
We remain, as always, focused on the best experience and outcomes for our students.
Making a complaint
If you have concerns about the quality of course delivery, please use the existing feedback mechanisms which will be explained to you at the start of your course, to raise these with your course team, in the first instance.
If you wish to take a more formal route, guidance is available to you in our student concerns and complaints procedure.
2, T P and F
If you have concerns about the quality of course delivery, please continue to use the existing feedback mechanisms you will be familiar with to raise these with your course team in the first instance. If you wish to take a more formal route, guidance is available to you in our student concerns and complaints procedure.