Welcome to the Medical Professionalism Education Group!
The Professional Responsibilities Course for students at the University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine encompasses Patient Safety, Clinical Leadership & Teamworking, Teaching Skills, Reflective Practice, and Ethics & Law. The course is led by the Medical Professionalism Education Group, which sits in the University Department of Public Health and Primary Care.
The Group are responsible for all teaching at the University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine relating to group one of the Outcomes for Graduates – the standards that all UK medical students are required to attain before they can be registered for practice with the General Medical Council.
The course builds on foundations laid in Year 1 (college-based ‘Introduction to the Profession’ symposia, and the Part 1a paper Social & Ethical Context of Health & Illness). The core course is delivered for clinical students (years 4-6 of the standard course and throughout the four-year graduate entry programme). We also deliver an optional Part 2 paper on ‘Research Methods in Medical Ethics & Law’ for students in Year 3 of the Standard Course, and are happy to supervise students undertaking a Student Selected Component project during Year 4. The aim is to ensure all students understand their professional, legal and ethical responsibilities, are equipped for lifelong learning and teaching, and are able to take an active role in promoting safety and quality in the health service.
Professional Responsibilities Course Team
The Teaching Team consists of:
- PRC Director and Theme Lead for Ethics & Law: Dr Elizabeth Fistein
- PRC Assistant Director and Theme Lead for Reflection, Learning & Teaching: Dr Sui-Yen Ah-See
- Theme Lead for Patient Safety: Dr Susan Broster
- Theme Lead for Clinical Leadership: Dr Jon Fistein
- Theme Lead for Multi-professional Team-Working: Dr Joanna Hampton
- Associate Theme Lead for Ethics & Law: Dr Roddy O’Donnell
- Ethics & Law Teaching Co-ordinator: Lesley Flood
- Professional Practice Groups & Seminars Co-ordinator: Katy Eason
We also have a dedicated teaching faculty made up of clinicians and academics from a range of specialties. We also welcome input from medical students.
Teaching opportunities include: Facilitating small-group discussion exercises in the Ethics and Law Theme (all grades), facilitating reflective learning in the Professional Practice Group programme (senior doctors), sponsoring (senior doctors) or mentoring (trainees) a QI project team in the Clinical School Leadership Programme.
Please contact Lesley or Katy if you would like to be involved.
Course Structure
Year 4
Introduction: Professional Skills for Student Doctors
Ethics & Law workshops: Consent, Confidentiality, End of Life, Fitness to Practice, Research
Patient Safety workshop: Systems Errors
PPG Reflective Practice Groups: Reflective Learning, Learning in a Clinical Setting, Tackling Discrimination, Professional Boundaries
Year 5
Learning to Teach Short Course
Quality Improvement & Principles of Leadership Short Course
How to be a successful doctor: Resilience Panel, Workshops on non-technical skills, career planning & coping skills
Ethics & Law workshops: Inter-cultural Learning, Mental Health, Children & Young People, Reproduction & Pregnancy
PPG Reflective Practice Groups: Non-technical Skills, Looking After Yourself
Year 6
Ethics & Law workshops: Resource Allocation, Defensible Practice
Patient Safety workshop: Complaints and significant events
How to be a successful doctor: Supporting Each Other (a systems approach to burnout prevention)
PPG Reflective Practice Groups: Learning from electives/preparing for final year, Dealing with significant events, Preparing for Foundation Programme
Assessment
Ethics & Law and Patient Safety are assessed in Year 6 via a SAQ (Structured Answer Question) written paper.
All resources for the course can be found on the Clinical School’s VLE (password restricted, for current students and educators at the University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine): https://vle.medschl.cam.ac.uk/login/index.php
Reflective learning in the Professional Practice Groups programme is assessed by annual portfolio review.
Teaching Skills are assessed through completion of the Teaching Course, which requires students to deliver teaching to others, participate in peer review, collect learner feedback and submit written reflections on what they have learned from these experiences. Students who meet the standard expected are awarded the Clinical School Teaching Certificate.
Leadership Skills are assessed through completion of the Clinical School Leadership Programme, which requires students to deliver Quality Improvement as part of a team, and submit individual written reflections on what they have learned from the experience. Students who meet the standard expected are awarded the Clinical School Leadership Certificate.
Student Selected Component
If you are interested in offering an SSC placement or you are a student looking to undertake your SSC in one of the PRC Themes please contact the relevant theme lead via Lesley or Katy.
Benchmarking
The faculty works with a range of external organisations to ensure that our programme is of the highest quality. We were one of the first UK medical Schools to be awarded accreditation from the Faculty of Medical Leadership & Management for delivery of its undergraduate curriculum and we are actively engaged with the Institute of Medical Ethics (delivering the recommended Core Content of Learning) and the UK Council for Educators of Medical Professionalism.