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MBChB Medicine with Foundation Year course preparation

To help you feel prepared for your university studies, we’ve gathered together a range of course related activities including suggested reading, useful websites and some great things to do right now. Open the links below to find out more:

Important: Occupational Health

Occupational Health (OH) appointments will be available on Thursday 24 August at the Ormskirk campus. If you’re unable to attend in August you’ll be offered an appointment on Tuesday 26 September during your induction week.

We’d like to remind you that it’s a condition of entry to the programme that you’re cleared and immunised by OH and failure to meet this requirement could result in your place on the programme being jeopardised. If you’re not fully cleared by OH, you won’t be able to access your maintenance loan via Student Finance England as you cannot fully enrol.

To ensure this process runs as smoothly as possible, we ask that you provide details of your immunisation record to the OH Team when you complete the questionnaire.

Please let us know if you’re unable to attend your allocated slot, preferably giving at least 24 hours notice.  If you’re unable to give 24 hours notice or have an issue on the day of your appointment, please email [email protected] or call the team on 01695 650946. The OH and School team will try to provide a subsequent appointment, but it’s likely that it would be at the OH department based in Wigan and it will be your responsibility to ensure that you attend.

Please note that most of our placement settings will require you to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 as a condition of placement. If you’re not vaccinated or are part way through vaccination, please let us know as soon as possible. It’s likely that this will be included on your immunisation record which will be sufficient to confirm your clearance.

We routinely collect data on short notice cancellations and non-attendance, if this happens more than once, the University will charge you the full cost of the appointment.

Suggested texts

You’ll be given far more information about which textbooks to read and introduced to the University Library, as well as the many ebooks we have for you to access when you begin your studies. And we don’t recommend rushing out to buy texts before you arrive.

Your study themes

You will study subjects that underpin five core themes within the Foundation Year, which will prepare you to progress to the MBChB Medicine. Adopting a non-modular approach, the Foundation Year curriculum has the following themes throughout its year of study:

  • Science for medicine: basic biomedical sciences; anatomy and physiology of the human body (system approach); structure and function of the human body related to health and illness.
  • Clinical perspective from a multi-disciplinary team approach: acute illness – national and local proactive approaches; long-term conditions in the general and local population; the basic principles of patient safety; multi-disciplinary team perspectives; National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines; General Medical Council (GMC) competencies.
  • Professional and personal development: personal and professional attitudes; legal and ethical principles of the profession; professionalism; reflection; leadership and management principles; placement learning; mentoring and coaching.
  • Communication for clinical practice: different styles and methods of communication; barriers to effective communication; communication skills with patients, colleagues and carers; written and academic communication for practice; models and theories of communication; patient-centred communication.
  • Health, health systems and public health: definitions of health and ill health; concepts of health; social determinants of health; public health; individual, community and population perspectives and approaches; health data sources and health and disease patterns; trends in health data at individual and population level; health and social care needs of the local community; psychological and social context of health and illness; the role of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other international agencies.
  • Study and academic skills: sessions will be delivered to prepare you for the rigours of studying medicine. These sessions will facilitate the transition to undergraduate study and support the introduction of professional skills to enhance your future employability. You will be encouraged to develop confidence and resilience in your journey to becoming a reflective lifelong learner.

You will gain perspectives on clinical and community learning through work placements, where you will be supported to reflect on and learn from these experiences. Professional behaviours and development are integrated throughout the course. On successful completion of the Foundation Year, you will progress to Year 1 of the MBChB Medicine degree.

Whilst this may seem like a lot of information, please don’t worry – these themes will be brought to life for you through a variety of teaching and learning methods. Through the spiral curriculum, you will revisit topics, build on previous knowledge, link theory to practice, and gain increasing confidence as you progress through the course.

Useful websites to visit

Handy checklists

Things to do before you start:

Things to do during Induction Week:

  • Find out who your PAT and Student Support Lead are and their contact details.
  • Meet the members of the Medical School Team
  • Chat to someone new on your course
  • Attend Occupational Health appointments (as required)
  • Declare any pre-booked holidays (if made before the start of the programme) to your PAT.
  • Access and “have a look around” the online platform (Blackboard) where all course timetables, resources and links are hosted.

Meet your programme lead