Imperial College London Primary Care

Medical student Nell Freeman from Imperial College London describes how the third year of the medical course can be tough for students and how the GP who was her Clinical Methods Teacher was a role model to her and taught her much more than just clinical history and examination techniques. "I hadn’t anticipated the emotional challenge of medicine. I found – narcissistically – that patients I could closely identify with, I carried home with me. I didn't quite know what to do with these emotions.  I watched my GP teachers, some of whom had relationships with their patients for more than 20 years, being able to professionally help them navigate their health challenges while still maintaining a very personal, human connection with them, but then being able to close the door and open it again to a new patient. Our teacher let us debrief about our experiences and discuss these challenges. I think the challenge of the third year at Imperial College is learning to accept how ...

Senior GP Teaching Fellow Dr Graham Easton from the Department of Primary Care and Public Health  at Imperial College London recently visited Ghana on behalf of the BBC World Service to host a debate on whether failed health systems in Africa make global epidemics - such as the recent Ebola outbreak - inevitable. The debate explores why the Ebola outbreak was able to spread so extensively, and look at wider lessons to be learnt about containing local epidemics in today’s globalised world. Summary of debate BBC iPlayer Recording - available for a limited period

Coaching for Health Project Launch Event The Department of Primary Care and Public Health at Imperial College has received funding from HENWL for an educational project which involves Year 3 medical and nursing undergraduate students jointly overseeing a caseload of patients with chronic conditions at high risk of hospital admission in the community. Students will be given health coaching skills which is new to the undergraduate curriculum. On the 12 th and 13 th of September 2014 the project was launched. Year 3 medical undergraduates on the MB BS course at Imperial College and Bucks nursing students were trained in health coaching skills. Evaluation of the project will be looking at the value of undergraduate interprofessional learning and whether health coaching can promote patient enablement. We had a very sunny day and students could practice their coaching skills in the sun.   We did some small group work where students could meet their GPs and ...

Andre Kubler PhD, a Final Year Medical Student at Imperial College London, describes how his academic placement in general practice changed his views about primary care "GP-negativity’ is a common condition, characterized by a lack of respect for general practice and its practitioners. It results largely from the media’s portrayal of GPs as ‘money-grabbing, cancer-missing, part-time doctors’. Medical students are at particular risk of developing this condition because they spend the majority of their time with authoritative hospital physicians that criticize their generalist colleagues. I was ‘GP-negative’ but my 3-week rotation in general practice cured me. I was healed through professional treatment: I was welcomed to the practice and introduced to each member. I was given access to online notes, and invited to meetings. I was told to prepare for my clinics, asked my opinions and welcomed to over-booked clinics. I was treated as a member of the practice; and for the fi...