Undergraduate medical education

We provide support to many ARU medical students, spanning from year 1 to year 5. Each hospital site has established specialised teaching programmes tailored to each year, catering to the specific needs of medical students at each stage of their academic journey.

• Year 1 – students interact with patients learning excellent bedside manners and communication skills.
• Year 2 – students acquire essential clinical knowledge and skills through one-on-one problem-solving methods.
• Year 3 – students become more integrated with medical teams through a clerkship programme, preparing them for their future roles as clinicians by exposing them to core medical and surgical specialties.
• Year 4 – students are encouraged to independently assess patients and discuss their findings through case-based discussions with clinicians.
• Year 5 – students are prepared to assume the roles of safe and competent foundation doctors through a range of tailored teaching programmes. They are assigned to work alongside F1 doctors, shadowing them for an extended period until they transition themselves to F1 doctor roles.

Additional opportunities consist of (but are not limited to):

• Clinical Teaching Fellows programmes - each site has a team of clinical teaching fellows who provide a range of training sessions, often using simulation based teaching approaches, mapped to curriculum requirements. 
• Tuesday Tea – based at Broomfield, this innovative wellness initiative allows students to meet with clinical teaching fellows to reflect on their time on placement, voice any concerns, and provide feedback and ideas.

Any questions?

If have any questions, please get in touch with us  at

• Basildon Hosptial -  mse.aru-basildonstudents@nhs.net
• Broomfield Hospital -  mse.medical.students@nhs.net
• Southend Hospital -  mse.medical.education.suhft@nhs.net

Testimonial - ARU Medical Student who is now a Foundation Doctor

The ability to shadow and complete placements in the hospital that I later worked in was invaluable. The transition from medical student to doctor will always be an intimidating and stressful period but the privilege to undergo it in a familiar environment made a huge difference. Having a basic understanding and recognition of the computer systems, referral pathways and inner workings of the hospital significantly reduced the period of uncertainty that all new doctors experience. 

The ability to pre-allocate to a hospital familiar and near to me took away significant stressors like moving house and being away from a support network. The choice of a DGH hospital was perfect as it provided me exposure to a wide range of specialties and required me to develop quickly in my independence, all making me a better doctor. If I had the option again, I would have chosen the same hospital and process to complete my foundation training. 

Testimonial from current ARU medical student

Medicine is a very well organised module. I was based on the respiratory wards, where everyone was very friendly and made me feel part of the team. The team are aware that we are allocated to SIM/refresher/twilight teaching and are very accommodating if we are engaged in teaching elsewhere. 

The resident doctors all trusted us to help with the ward jobs and involved us as much as possible. They tailored teaching to what we requested, making it very beneficial to us. Overall a great four week medicine block that was well organised and very enjoyable.

We also work closely with ARU to host Physician Associate students for placements in general medicine, general surgery, paediatrics, emergency medicine, and obstetrics and gynaecology.

This includes induction, regular teaching programmes and virtual reality simulation. We supervise and support students to complete their quality improvement projects, as well as mentoring and providing pastoral care to the PA students during their secondary care placement with our senior physician associates.

If you are a PA student and have any questions, get in touch:

• Basildon Hospital - mse.aru-basildonstudents@nhs.net
• Broomfield Hospital - uzma.syed12@nhs.net and jennifer.mock@nhs.net
• Southend Hospital -  mse.medical.education.suhft@nhs.net.

Broomfield and Southend both offer placements for Barts and the London Medical students.

Students undertake placements in years 3, 4 and 5 and are offered hospital accommodation during their time on placement.   

• Year 3 - under the tutelage of the clinical teaching fellows, we will support students during their first hospital placement to make sure they obtain the basic skills in history taking, clinical examination, interpretation of clinical data and clinical reasoning.
• Year 4 - students will attend specific specialities such as paediatrics, obstetrics and gynaecology, medicine for the elderly, rheumatology and trauma and orthopaedics whilst being supported by the clinical teaching fellows.
• Year 5 - learning around the care of acutely ill patients. Students attend two blocks; the first consisting of eight-weeks attachments to perioperative medicine and the second with four week attachments.

If you are a medical student studying at QMUL and have any questions, please get in touch:

• Broomfield Hospital - mse.medical.students@nhs.net
• Southend Hospital - mse.medical.education.suhft@nhs.net.

Testimonial – Barts Year 3 student

The clinical teaching team has been absolutely fantastic. Not only did they put on a huge amount of extremely useful teaching (including surgical skills teaching, which from my understanding is very rare at our stage of medical education) but they also organised us into groups with contacts for foundation doctors in different specialties. This is a way I got to practice clinical skills and received excellent feedback. 

Testimonial – Barts Year 5 student

The teaching organised by the Clinical Teaching Fellows was the best I have ever had throughout this medical degree! I cannot thank them enough! Mock OSCE was really helpful; it had a variety of stations with real patients.

Basildon offers placements for UCL medical students.

In their fifth year, students undertake their placements in paediatrics and obstetrics and gynaecology.

In their sixth and final year, students attend 15 week placements in Medicine, Surgery and Acute Medical blocks. They will spend 5 weeks in each of the above 3 blocks.

The students engage in a variety of District General Hospital (DGH) rotations. Final year students also participate in the Preparation for Practice Assistantship following finals. Throughout their time at the hospital, students typically reside in on-site hospital accommodation.

In addition to their clinical experiences students benefit from an educational programme which includes simulation and virtual reality (VR) training sessions, core teaching sessions delivered by experienced consultants, a twilight teaching program, and weekly bedside teaching sessions. These educational opportunities are carefully designed to support the students in their preparation leading up to their final exams including the Clinical and Professional Skills Assessment (CPSA), previously known as the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) conducted every March.

To better prepare students for this crucial assessment, the education department provides mock CPSA exams to all final-year students, offering valuable feedback on their performance before the final summative CPSA.

Dr Sarah Bennett, Deputy MBBS Programme Lead at UCL, praised the high quality organisation of the final CPSA exams held at Basildon Hospital, thanking the team for their:

Hard work, dedication, and kindness…. showed to our students, during the Year 6 OSCE...

Any questions?

If you have any questions, contact mse.ucl.students@nhs.net

Testimonial – from UCL student following simulation CTF teaching:

Engaging session! Enjoyed going through the A-E - helped us to improve our structure and confidence. Also thought it was useful to go through the guidelines at the end and I feel more comfortable with these scenarios if they came up on OSCE (Objective Structured Clinical Examination).

Elective medical students are students who are not associated with our Trust and come from the UK and all over the world.

We offer medical students in their final year the opportunity to undertake electives spanning between four and six weeks.

There is a charge to undertake electives and interested students must apply to just one site.

Interested?

If you are interested, please apply to one of the hospitals below:

• Basildon Hospital — mse.medicalelectiveplacements@nhs.net
• Broomfield Hospital - mse.medical.students@nhs.net
• Southend Hospital— kim.hazell@nhs.net

Testimonial

It has been amazing! Really wonderful team and supportive environment.