Medicine and Dentistry

PLYMOUTH UNIVERSITY PENINSULA SCHOOLS OF MEDICINE AND DENTISTRY The Plymouth University Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry work in partnership with the University and NHS to provide contemporary, patient-centred and integrated undergraduate medical and dental degree programmes. Pedagogic research from within the school and around the world has informed the development and continued evolution of innovative curricula to produce excellent graduates that meet the health and social care needs of the 21st century. Research within the Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry is directly relevant to improving patient health and the quality of patient care, and hence is readily applicable to the education programmes. A recent investment of £25M into the Institute of Translational and Stratified Medicine strengthens healthcare research, and has enriched the environment within which medical, dental and other health programmes are taught, as well as benefitting patients and the NHS. The Schools have created an excellent national and international reputation for groundbreaking research in the areas of diabetes and obesity, neurological disease, child development and ageing, health and the environment and health technology assessment. Plymouth’s flagship, multimillion pound John Bull Building is the headquarters for the Plymouth University Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry and with further investment planned for new state of the art clinical skills and research laboratories. This is complemented by cutting edge medical and dental facilities at the purpose built Peninsula Allied Healthcare facility. Both sites are next door to Derriford, the region’s premier trauma centre and teaching hospital. Students also benefit from clinical skills and research facilities on the main Plymouth campus, the Knowledge Spa in Cornwall and its exclusive dental training sites at both Devonport and Derriford.

The Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (BM,BS)

This degree programme is carefully structured to ensure that, as a graduate of the Plymouth University Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry , you will possess the knowledge, skills and attitudes required for safe practice and entry into your first clinical job.

Our teaching and learning are based around the educational principles of patient-centred , relevant , partnership , integration , authentic and contextual , innovation and quality improvement , and research-informed teaching , within a student-sensitive culture that focuses on the students having the best possible educational experience.

The Plymouth University Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry have developed an approach to medical education that nurtures the skills and abilities required by doctors of the future. The school prepares undergraduate medical students for their role as a doctor by immersing them in clinical experience.

From week one the curriculum integrates science and medicine, using small group learning techniques and hands-on practical experience in a research-rich environment across a diverse range of healthcare settings. Throughout your degree programme you study in a variety of clinical locations across the South West: in hospitals, general practice and the wider health community.

The degree programme has been developed within the framework of the General Medical Council’s guidance as set out in Tomorrow’s Doctors (see www.gmc-uk.org ). The programme is structured so that it can evolve in line with the major changes that will occur in the National Health Service in the coming years.

The Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS)

This programme at the Plymouth University Peninsula Schools of Medicine of Dentistry is a patient-centred course delivered in a supportive and research-rich environment. The three main teaching themes are vertically integrated across the programme. These are Science for Dentistry; Clinical Dentistry; and Personal and Professional Development. Science and clinical skills are integrated in the curriculum and you will learn within a variety of dental teaching clinics.

The degree is a four-year full-time programme designed for graduates in a biomedically-related subject or healthcare professionals. The degree is clinically intensive and makes use of community-based experience starting in Year 1 and building throughout the programme. There is a major emphasis on the sciences that underpin modern dental practice as well as the human and societal impact of dental disease.

Clinical training starts in your first week with visits to local dental surgeries and extends throughout the programme’s duration. Having the NHS as one of our partners will ensure that you will be exposed to patients with a wide range of oral health conditions and related community and public health problems.

The degree programme is carefully structured to ensure that, as a Plymouth University Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry graduate; you will possess the knowledge, skills and attitudes required for safe practice and entry into your first clinical job. The School will produce dentists who will be highly technically proficient, patient-centred team leaders who are as concerned with the preservation of oral health as with the treatment of disease.

Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry (PCMD)

The 2012 intake of students to these programmes is run by the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry (PCMD).

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Patient-centred and relevant learning

Our teaching and learning activities are patient-centred . This means that patients are at the heart of learning, through extensive use of real-life situations involving patients, authentic or context -sensitive simulation and simulated patients. Students begin to learn from patient experiences from the first few weeks of the course and this continues throughout the five years. This enables you to see the relevance of your teaching and learning to become a practicing doctor from the outset and to approach clinical problems holistically.

Partnership

Partnerships underpin our curriculum in many ways. These hugely enrich your experience and individual learning journey at Plymouth University Peninsula School of Medicine. You will benefit from partnerships of scientists and clinicians delivering some aspects of the curriculum, from partnerships in supervision and mentoring with your academic tutor, from teaching and learning partnerships with fellow students, and in partnerships with the University and NHS.

Integrated learning

You will acquire science and clinical knowledge in an integrated way across the whole five years from relevant, patient-centred perspectives. In the first year, your learning follows the human life cycle from birth to old age considering healthy and well-being patient cases, and in year 2 your learning spirals to revisit the human life cycle with more pathological/disease-based patient cases. In the later years of the programme, you follow patient pathways of care, continuing to learn clinical care and integrated science from patient journeys within the whole healthcare community.

Authentic and contextual learning

Throughout the course, you will undertake real tasks and be offered real-life opportunities for clinical care, and participation in meaningful work-based learning. This provides opportunities for practising your clinical and communication skills, to build your confidence, to learn from the diversity of role models in healthcare, and, under appropriate supervision, to give something back to the community within which you are learning. The many authentic clinical experiences you will have really helps with understanding the context for learning medicine, the multi-professional nature of medicine, and the importance of teams in healthcare provision.

Innovation and quality improvements

You will experience innovation and quality improvements throughout the programme. Innovation underpins our contemporary curriculum and our development and enhancement of the programme. We actively encourage student feedback at all levels of the learning experience, and student engagement with staff to ensure your programme best suits your learning needs. Embedded in the medical programme are opportunities for learning the approaches and ways to think about quality improvement within current medical practises, that is a necessary skill for all healthcare practitioners working in modern healthcare services.

Research-informed teaching

Our research within Plymouth University Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry is applied and translational, and supports our teaching and learning and innovative curriculum in several ways. Our internationally renowned clinical education research and pedagogy ensure that our teaching and learning methods are contemporary, innovative and effective. All members of the Faculty have time devoted to pedagogic activities to ensure high quality teaching provision. Our medical sciences faculty (covering biomedical, behavioural and clinical sciences) underpin the teaching of scientific practice ("The Doctor as a Scholar and a Scientist" ¹ ) and ensures curriculum coverage of relevant, up-to-date scientific knowledge required for modern clinical practice. Our NHS colleagues and healthcare researchers undertake translational research to improve patient care and this ensures that their teaching and learning on the medical programme ("The Doctor as a Practitioner" ¹ ; "The Doctor as a Professional" ¹ ) is current and at the forefront of medical care.

¹ General Medical Council Tomorrow’s Doctors (2009) outcome