The four-week curriculum — academic Mondays, clinical Tuesday to Friday
The full specification: the clinical rhythm, the Monday seminar week by week, the learning outcomes, the logbook framework, the assessment positioning, and the authoritative references underpinning the design.
FHEQ L6 register L7 elements Reviewed and kept current
Last editorial review: 7 June 2026 · Next scheduled refresh: 1 December 2026.
Clinical immersion, anchored by a weekly academic spine
The curriculum is designed around a single educational principle: direct NHS clinical exposure delivers the deepest learning when it is anchored to a structured weekly academic programme. Four full clinical days each week provide the embodied learning — consultation styles, multimorbidity reasoning, prescribing patterns, the multi-professional team, the audit culture, the QOF framework, the actual rhythm of NHS primary care. The full-day Monday seminar then surfaces the conceptual scaffolding that converts observation into structured learning. Two complementary halves: an eight-channel curriculum (four academic, four clinical) across twenty learning days.
One academic day plus four clinical days, for four weeks
| Week | Monday · seminar theme | Tuesday–Friday · clinical focus |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | UK pathways & IMG routes | Induction (Tue) · 12–14 observation sessions + audit scoping + self-directed learning |
| 2 | UKMLA AKT format orientation | Chronic-disease clinics · QOF-aligned reviews · audit data collection |
| 3 | UKMLA CPSA format orientation + simulation | Referral processes · MDT exposure · first audit cycle closes |
| 4 | Public-health essentials | Synthesis · audit presentation at a practice meeting · end-of-placement summary |
The clinical day
Morning ~09:00–12:00: observation with continuity — typically a GP or prescribing-pharmacist clinic, with case discussion between consultations. Afternoon ~14:00–17:00: the same clinician for continuity or a different professional for breadth (nurse-led chronic-disease clinic, ACP minor-illness clinic, MDT meeting). Logbook signed at day's end.
The two protected sessions
Audit / QI (one per week): scoped at induction; a single-cycle audit can be initiated, data collected, an intervention designed and — where the loop closes within four weeks — presented at a practice meeting. Self-directed learning (one per week): in-practice reading, the practice's CPD agenda, and structured review of the week's cases.
What the consultations students observe will reflect
UK general-practice consultations during the four-week observership are calibrated to the contemporary pivotal-guideline canon: type-2-diabetes prescribing under NICE NG28 (Feb 2026), the KDIGO 2024 + NICE NG203 + TA877 CKD triple anchor, the 2025 ESC/EAS Focused Update on dyslipidaemias, menopause under NICE NG23 + the BMS HRT Guide (Feb 2026), and headache under NICE CG150 + the NICE CGRP-mAb and gepant TA set. Observation of the Programme Lead's own consultations, the host-surgery prescribing-pharmacist clinics, and the MDT meetings will reflect this current canon.
Weeks 1–4 — lectures, workshops, practicals
09:00–17:00. Hertfordshire cohort led in person by Prof Rajesh Varma; Essex cohort by the Essex Medical Society academic team.
| Week | Theme | Content & practicals |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | UK pathways & IMG routes | UK postgraduate training architecture · the two principal IMG entry pathways (UKFP / F2 Standalone · Non-UK Internship → CREST) · the GMC framework and the PLAB-to-UKMLA transition · English-language requirements (IELTS / OET) · visa frameworks (Skilled Worker · Health & Care Worker) · portfolio architecture. Practical: individual pathway-planning conversations with the Programme Lead. |
| 2 | UKMLA AKT orientation | The MLA AKT in context · single-best-answer item architecture and distractor reasoning · time management. Practical: supervised AKT-format sample-item walk-throughs across the principal clinical domains. |
| 3 | UKMLA CPSA orientation | The CPSA in context · OSCE station architecture, domain mapping and marking · communication-skills framing. Practical: procedure teaching on simulation equipment (venepuncture model, ECG application, BP measurement to NICE standards) · simulated-patient consultations with structured feedback. |
| 4 | Public-health essentials | CVD prevention (QRISK3, statin initiation, BP targets, CVDPREVENT) · national cancer screening (breast, bowel, cervical) · childhood and adult vaccination · safeguarding children and adults · digital health and AI in the NHS. Practical: programme synthesis, reflection, and the ongoing research-mentorship offer. |
On Weeks 2 and 3: the seminar provides orientation to the UKMLA AKT and CPSA format. MD Acumen does not formally offer PLAB 1 or PLAB 2 training courses; candidates preparing for these examinations should use the GMC's own resources. Separately, our Clinical Consultation Day (22 August 2026) provides individualised consultation-skills feedback and a UK clinical-management refresher that significantly supports future PLAB 2 (MLA CPSA) candidates.
What you should be able to do after four weeks
Assessed, where ECTS applies, by your home medical school — the sole examining authority. Calibrated to the end of a Year 5 / Year 6 international curriculum.
Knowledge
Skills
Professional
Aligned to GMC standards and Medical Schools Council UK guidance
The logbook implements the GMC's published standards for observership evidence — a named supervising clinician for every session with their GMC or NMC pin, a written signature per session, weekly lead-supervisor summaries, and an end-of-placement summary — and the Medical Schools Council UK principles for undergraduate clinical-attachment portfolios, mapping to the Outcomes for graduates framework.
Per session
Supervisor signs with pin and rates attendance, outcome and engagement; you record the conditions seen plus one or two sentences of reflection.
Per week
The lead supervisor signs a weekly summary across all four clinical days, with a pastoral check-in and learning areas for the week ahead.
End of placement
The Week-4 summary records satisfactory completion and is the evidence base for your Certificate of Completion.
The logbook is currently a printed booklet — the GMC evidentiary standard requires a written supervisor signature alongside the pin — with a digital companion in development. You keep the original: it is portable evidence for ECTS assessment and UK specialty-training applications.
Academic register: the observership sits at the upper end of FHEQ Level 6 (per the QAA Medicine Subject Benchmark), with some Week-1 pathway content drawing on Level 7 material — intentionally distinct from MD Acumen's Level 7 postgraduate programmes on mdacumen.com.
The published sources underpinning the design
Continue exploring the observership
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