KUMEC Teacher Development

KUMEC - King’s Undergraduate Medical Education in the Community 2013-14

Information for Practice Managers Dr Kerry Boardman

The KUMEC network

KUMEC - King's Undergraduate Medical Education in the Community

KUMEC is the community teaching “campus” of the King’s College London School of Medicine.

You are joining our network of over 300 KUMEC General Practices, teaching around 2300 students a year. This accounts for about 13% of the undergraduate medical curriculum.

The map show the locations of our practices, mostly in and around Southeast London, but with some independent Phase 5 teaching practices as far away as Highland Scotland.

Why teach students in the community?

KUMEC - King's Undergraduate Medical Education in the Community

Practice-based tutorials and seminars are intended to help students:

develop their skills in clinical

communication and examination

learn patient-centred care of people with

common illnesses

develop skills in health promotion

contrast the differences between patients

requiring inpatient and outpatient care

and recognise the importance of good

communication during transitions

between the two

develop an understanding of the work of

General Practice and the community

healthcare teams

How do practices become teaching practices?

“Teaching practice” for us refers to the 300 surgeries which teach our KCL undergraduate students; “training practices” contract with the Deaneries to teach postgraduate Foundation Year 2 doctors (FY2s) and GP Specialty Trainees (GPSTs). Quite a few practices do both.

We are always looking to recruit new teachers for our undergraduate teaching. Initial contact is usually from an interested teacher, who will liaise with Dr Kerry Boardman, the Teacher Development Lead. As part of the recruitment process, one of the members of the KUMEC team will visit the practice to meet the Practice Manager and the GPs who might want to teach KCL undergraduate students.

KUMEC - King's Undergraduate Medical Education in the Community

What agreements do the practice make with KUMEC?

There are two annual agreement documents for practices

who wish to teach: both are to be completed on line:

1. A Teaching Availability Form (TAF), in which the GP

teachers and practice staff indicate what years and

rotations (and how many students) they propose to

teach in the following rotation or year

2. A Teaching Agreement (link here), which indicates the

teaching sessions contracted to the practice, fees, and

the expectations of both KCL and the practice about

teaching responsibilities.

KUMEC - King's Undergraduate Medical Education in the Community

How do teachers know what to teach?

KUMEC - King's Undergraduate Medical Education in the Community

The medical curriculum at KCL is carefully integrated between students’ campus, hospital and community teaching. In community teaching, each year has a different focus with students having more experience with patients in each year.

Comprehensive KUMEC Curriculum Handbooks for

each year group are prepared annually and located on

the relevant year pages on our website

www.kcl.ac.uk/kumec . Each one details session times,

patient recruitment, learning objectives, tutorial topics,

and logbook sign-offs for the student for their days at

the practice. These are supplemented by Quick

Reference Guides for each year, printed and sent out to

each practice, as well as being on the website

When do students come to the practice?

Each year group attends practice

placements for different numbers

of sessions, from a few days in the

first two years to 8 full weeks in

the final Phase 5 year. In the early

years, students will attend in pairs

or trios. Phase 5 students are

placed individually.

Teaching dates can be found on

the relevant Quick Reference

Guides for each year group and all

dates are summarised on the

KUMEC website here

KUMEC - King's Undergraduate Medical Education in the Community

Preparing for students

KUMEC - King's Undergraduate Medical Education in the Community

Setting aside protected time is a key element to practice-based teaching, which both KUMEC and the GMC monitor carefully

Students value dedicated time with their tutor and commonly remark on this in their practice evaluation

Each year group’s information will specify the expected length of protected time for a student session.

Protected time means:

no booked patients

no enquiries

no phone calls

no paperwork/other jobs

during teaching time.

The rest of the practice team also need to be made aware that a tutor is teaching and therefore unavailable.

Recruiting patients for teaching

KUMEC - King's Undergraduate Medical Education in the Community

Teaching often involves finding a

chronically ill patient or a patient with a

long-term condition with stable clinical

signs, to come to the practice for a

dedicated teaching session, or see

students on a home visit.

Tutors or Practice Managers may find it

useful to keep a list of current patients

who would be suitable and willing to see

students.

Tutors asking their own patients or asking

colleagues for recommendations and

approaching the patients themselves

usually works better than one of the

administrative or reception staff doing so.

Recruiting patients for teaching

KUMEC - King's Undergraduate Medical Education in the Community

In Phases 3 and 5, students will

sometimes sit in with a GP for a routine

surgery session, with unselected patients.

These patients should be notified of the

presence of students in surgery when

they arrive.

Patients should be asked for informed

consent before they see students and

always given the opportunity to say “no”,

knowing it will not affect their care in any

way.

Documentation of consent should be

made in the patient’s notes, along with a

note to say they have seen students.

Most year groups do not have a

requirement for written consent, but for

Phase 4 teaching, mothers in the

longitudinal pregnancy study must sign a

consent form for the three visits, to be

held on record by the practice.

Timeline – student & patient logistics

KUMEC - King's Undergraduate Medical Education in the Community

When students are

allocated

The week before

teaching

The morning of teaching

Email students: Usually the tutor does

this to introduce

themselves and clarify

dates

Surgery Logistics: Confirm dates

Block session(s)

Arrange cover, if needed

Start contacting suitable

patients

Email students: Reminder of dates &

times

Travel directions

Plan for teaching

Background reading

Surgery Logistics: Confirm protected

session time and cover

Surgery Logistics: Call patients to confirm

arrangements

Reminder to Reception

staff that students are

coming

Check who will greet

students on arrival

Check room set-up

What about when it occasionally doesn’t go smoothly?

KUMEC - King's Undergraduate Medical Education in the Community

Problem Potential Solution

Late or absent students • Ensure all students have a direct contact number

for you, or the practice bypass number, to facilitate

contact in case of transport issues/illness

• Find out if previous teaching is overrunning (may

need to liaise with the hospital Firm Head, either

directly, or via the KUMEC team)

Students wanting to leave early • Find out the reason

• Remind students of attendance requirements

• Do they need to get back for hospital teaching –

may need to liaise with Firm Head

Concerning or unprofessional behaviour • The first stop with a concern is usually for the tutor

to call the KUMEC Administrator for the year the

student is studying. Any of the administrators can

refer your call to the appropriate person.

• Please do not put the student’s name in an email

as it is often not sufficiently confidential. Use

initials, and let us know separately who you are

referring to.

If in doubt, contact the KUMEC team for advice!

What do we do if the tutor can’t teach that day? Commitments to teach specific sessions are very important as MBBS students are very tightly scheduled and cannot easily make up a tutorial session another time. We cannot provide alternative practice-based teaching on short notice since in most cases patients must have been recruited and consented in advance. If a tutor must be absent from a session due to illness please call the KUMEC Administrator for the year group(s) affected as soon as possible. Sometimes another clinician or F2 or Registrar in the practice could take over the teaching for a session.

KUMEC - King's Undergraduate Medical Education in the Community

What about payment for teaching?

Administrators assign students to our teaching practices

and are able to automatically pay practices for sessions

they have taught at the end of the rotation or year,

without any need for an invoice. Payment rates are

posted on the KUMEC website.

KCL pays by BACS deposit into the practice account.

You will be asked by KUMEC for these bank account

details at the time the new practice is confirmed as a

current teaching practice.

KUMEC - King's Undergraduate Medical Education in the Community

Who will KUMEC contact at the practice?

We depend on whoever is identified as the Practice Liaison to

distribute our queries, teaching information and training dates to all

staff involved in teaching within the practice.

We keep one email address for the practice in

our database for teaching business. We will

also ask in our agreements for names and

GMC or NMC numbers for all clinical staff

who will teach students in the practice. This is

a requirement of the General Medical Council

of the UK and should be kept up to date.

KUMEC - King's Undergraduate Medical Education in the Community

Finding out more

The KUMEC web pages for

practices and tutors,

www.kcl.ac.uk/kumec are

updated annually with current

policies and documents. The

Handbooks for each year, Quick

Reference Guides and training

events are also available.

We also encourage you to

contact the KUMEC team if you

have any questions

KUMEC - King's Undergraduate Medical Education in the Community

Summary

Planning and getting the

logistics right improves

student experience and

the practice’s satisfaction

Help students to feel

welcome and wanted

And…

KUMEC - King's Undergraduate Medical Education in the Community

If in doubt, ask the KUMEC team!

KUMEC - King's Undergraduate Medical Education in the Community

Richard

Phillips

Russell

Hearn

Anne

Stephenson

Kay Leedham-

Green

Ann Wylie

Kerry

Boardman

Ruth Sugden

Tina

Challacombe

Lorraine

Thompson Anna Quinn

Monica Martin

Maria Elliott

Rini Paul

Simon Power

Tasnim Patel

Anne

Stephenson