Brighton and Sussex Medical School, BMBS, Medicine

In the 1st 2years of the course, academic and clinical studies are based on campus at Falmer; teaching is organised into 3 10-week terms, with 25% of the learning clinically based, and including experience in primary care and community medicine and in different out-patient settings in the school’s partner Trust hospitals; there is an individual family study in each of these years; students develop clinical skills in history-taking, physical examination, diagnosis and effective communication with patient, and study the normal and abnormal functioning of the human body using a system-based approach; Years 3-4 are based at the Audrey Emerton Building, the Education Centre at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton; the teaching year is now extended to about 45 weeks, with short breaks at Christmas and Easter and a longer break in the summer; Year 3 includes 4 8-week ward-based clinical attachments, plus short attachments in specialist options; clinical experience is integrated with understanding of underlying clinical and social sciences and public health issues; students maintain individual patient portfolio; Year 4 begins with an 8-week clinical elective, offering students the opportunity to experience medical practice in a cultural and clinical setting completely different from their training hospitals; this is often taken overseas, especially in developing countries; year also includes a rotation of clinical placements in specialist subjects; Year 5 provides clinical and professional preparation for student’s first postgraduate year as a pre-registration house officer (PRHO); students undertake attachments which include a rotation of clinical placements in district general hospital and community settings in Sussex and its adjoining counties as well as in the School’s University Hospitals Trust teaching hospitals; there is an element of choice within these attachments, and students also spend periods shadowing PRHOs; between the attachments, there is a block of instruction in practical emergency medicine based in the School’s clinical skills facilities and, throughout the year, an online programme of study is available to enhance knowledge and clinical and professional skills.