Undergraduate Medical Education
Teaching Palliative Care in the University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine is closely intertwined with the research of our group. This direct link with the latest research contributes to the outstanding quality of our teaching.
The General Medical Council has described our palliative care teaching as a “national exemplar of excellence”.
We seek to prepare our medical students for their important role in caring for patients approaching and at the end of their lives as junior doctors and later in their careers. While a few may subsequently become Palliative Medicine Consultants, most will become Consultants in other specialties or General Practitioners, providing Palliative Care in those settings.
Our teaching is delivered throughout the final three clinical years of the medical course. Half-day seminars take the students through the wide range of issues in a spiral fashion. During year 4, student learning includes ethical issues at the end of life and decisions about cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Year 5 includes sessions on symptom control, bereavement, psychological issues and care after death. The focus of year 6 is preparing students to provide care close to the end of life, with a practical focus on advanced communication skills and prescribing.
Teaching team
The teaching team is led by Professor Stephen Barclay, Professor of Palliative Care and recipient of the 2015 University Pilkington Prize for Teaching Excellence and Dr Anna Spathis, Assistant Professor of Palliative Care. Dr Annabel Price, and Dr Robert Brodrick, are Associate Specialty Directors of the course. Alice Cuttriss is our Teaching Coordinator. Colleagues from the research team, the broader Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Palliative and End of Life Care community, patient and carers, ethicists, chaplains and even professional actors contribute to teaching sessions.
UK Association for Palliative Medicine Special Interest Forum for Undergraduate Medical Education
Professor Barclay is Co-chair, together with Professor John Ellershaw (Liverpool), of the UK Association for Palliative Medicine Special Interest Forum for Undergraduate Medical Education http://www.apmuesif.phpc.cam.ac.uk/
For enquiries concerning our undergraduate education, please contact our Teaching Coordinator, Alice Cuttriss.
Postgraduate Medical Education and PhD Supervision
Over recent years we have had several ARC Fellows join the group. These are clinicians who are funded by the Applied Research Collaboration for one day per week for a year to undertake research. Our current ARC Fellow is Dr Helen Finlinson. We also host Academic Clinical Fellows. These are junior doctors training to become GPs or Palliative Medicine Consultants who have protected time for research during their clinical training. Our current Academic Clinical Fellows are Dr Kathryn Dixon, Dr Arjun Kingdon and Dr Thomas Weetman.
We welcome applications for PhD students in our research group. Some of our recent PhD students include Dr Erica Borgstrom, Dr Sarah Hoare, and Dr Liz Dzeng.
We regularly run education days for GP Trainees across the Region and study days for established GPs in collaboration with the Royal College of General Practitioners.
For enquiries about our postgraduate education, please contact Dr Barclay’s Research PA, Angela Harper.