The purpose of the general practice placement in Year 3 is to help students develop fluency in history taking and examining patients whilst maintaining patient-centredness and compassion.  

Students will also expand their understanding of health equity through patient contact and completing the health equity e-modules. This aspect of the GP3 module explores the social and environmental factors that shape health, and what actions could be taken to address them.  This also links to the GPCD module on Health Equity which they do in January.  

• Meet, consult and examine patients and receive feedback.

• Develop understanding of the generalist nature of primary care, the lived experience of GPs and the kinds of patient presentations and consultations seen there.

• Explore the concept of compassionate practice, collaboratively, reflectively, creatively. 

• Cover the GP3 presentations and conditions which you will be assessed on.

• Understand the social and environmental factors that shape health.

GP tutors are asked to offer their students a one-to-one inclusive induction - a platform for students to share their individual learning needs or concerns at the start of the placement.  This meeting could last 5-10 minutes, or longer, depending on how much information the students would like to share in this 'safe' environment. The GP Tutor handbook below will give you details on how to undertake the induction, and the Inclusive Induction training video will give you some background and results on the impact of the intervention. The CBME team will ask for your feedback on how you found the process of undertaking the induction and your anonymous feedback may be used for research purposes to share the benefits of inclusive placements with the wider academic community.

Structure - a placement day is at least 6 hours long.  Practices may design their own timetables of when students are onsite consulting with patients and when there will be group tutorials according to the needs of the practice, patients and students. The emphasis should be on students seeing patients.

The placement activities you engage in should follow the GP presentations and conditions which students will be tested on in their summer exams. You can access this here. 

Suggested timetables and pre-placement email templates here.

Each student should have an individual, mid-placement one-to-one 'check-in' with their Lead GP Tutor. This is an opportunity for you to find out how the placement is going for your students, and if they have any feedback that they would like to share with you. It is also your opportunity to give students feedback if there are any attendance, clinical or professionalism issues, so that they have a chance to improve before the end of the placement. The students are also given the opportunity to feed back to the CBME GP3 team, should there be any issues arising in their placement. The GP3 team will review these, and follow up if needed.

GP3 presentations and conditions will be tested in Year 3 summer exams. Details can be accessed here.

GP3 placement assessments:

• Group-based presentation to GP Tutor on compassion or generalism (with individual 500 word reflection)

• E-learning modules on health equity (x2) 

• Y3 GP3 Placement Sign Off Form (Placement Professionalism & Assessment  form) 

• Completion of student logbook 

Details on these 4 assessments are here. 

Students will be completing their Year 3 SSCs during Term 1 and Term 2. 

In previous years, students carried out an SSC reflective assignment related to a patient consultation that they led, and if the patient was selected from their GP placement, GP tutors were expected to mark the SSC assignment.

However, this academic year, students are strongly encouraged to select patients from the secondary care setting and therefore we do not anticipate GP tutors needing to be involved in this process at all. 

In the unlikely circumstance that a student does approach  their GP tutor about completing their SSC assignment on a patient in primary care, please ask the student to contact Kate Scurr (k.j.scurr@qmul.ac.uk) so we can explore this further.

Term 1 (8-weeks)

W/c:  14-Oct-24,  21-Oct-24,  28-Oct-24,  04-Nov-24, 11-Nov-24,  18-Nov-24,  25-Nov-24,  02-Dec-24

Term 2 (8 weeks)

W/c:  27-Jan-25,  03-Feb-25,  10-Feb-25,  17-Feb-25,  24-Feb-25,  03-Mar-25,  10-Mar-25,  17-Mar-25

Term 3 (8 weeks)

W/c:   31-Mar-25, 07-Apr-25, (Easter Break - no placements: w/c 14th April & w/c 21st April) 28-Apr-25, 05-May-25, 12-May-25, 19-May-25, 26-May-25, 02-Jun-25

1. The Year 3 GP3  Mandatory Preparatory Session will take place online from 1-2pm on Wednesday 18th September and a recording will be circulated to practices/tutors - place contact Kate Scurr if you require access).  

2. There is a GP3 WhatsApp group where you can share questions and best practice - useful for quick response from the team (contact Kate Scurr  for the link)

3. Ongoing, online Educator Workshops Hot Topics (for all years) on 1st Weds of month – 1pm - 2pm). 

4.  You can find a list of all of our training and events on the CBME website

Kate Scurr (GP3 administrator) is your first port of call for any day to day queries regarding the GP3 module. Contact details: k.j.scurr@qmul.ac.uk 

Kate may send your query to the GP3 academic module leads if required:

Dr Safiya Virji: s.virji@qmul.ac.uk  

Dr Natalie Symes: n.symes@qmul.ac.uk