At the beginning of December, the Undergraduate Primary Care Education Team at Imperial College ran a webinar for our GP Tutors on how best to support and train our medical students during the pandemic.
General practice has been transformed by the COVID pandemic, with majority of patient interactions continuing still remotely via telephone or digital means. This transition has been a steep learning curve for all clinicians. Our medical students have had their own challenges, learning in this changing landscape with reduced face to face contact, increased uncertainty and risk. Questions have been raised about how we can best support and supervise medical students safely as they develop their skills and experience in primary care.
The webinar was designed to address these questions, and to help support our GP Tutors with guidance. It covered how to organise a placement with safe learning activities, tips on supervision of students conducting consultations remotely and how to provide learning opportunities that also enhance service. The webinar also detailed Imperial College’s new guidance on how best to support students that are taking part in clinical and learning activity ‘off-site’, including those self-isolating.
Dr Nina Dutta (Year 3 MICA, Faculty development) and Dr Neepa Thacker (Year 5 GPPHC) led the webinar which was informed by the latest evidence and discussions with our GP tutors and students. We heard from Alexandra Cardoso Pinto (Year 3 Medical Student) on her experiences of being a student in a GP placement during the pandemic. She highlighted her key challenges, including having to isolate for a large part of her GP placement and how she overcame these, giving us all food for thought for our future students.
It was great to be joined by so many tutors with pertinent questions making for a really engaging session. We are glad to say, it was all recorded! If you missed it, you can catch up on link below: