Undergraduate Students

Welcome to ELFT. We look forward to working alongside you in this exciting time in your career. We hope you will find your placements and the education program to be supportive and interesting.

Medicine in Society

ELFT provides up to 100 Psychiatry placements to all 2nd year Medicine in Society Students from Queen Mary Bart’s and the London Medical School. Please note: placements are subject to change due to Covid19 for this academic year

The aim of the placements is to introduce students to the patients’ experience of chronic ill-health, and the healthcare systems that are responsible for providing the care and management for those individuals and their families.

Placements will be based in one of three of our London localities, Newham, Tower Hamlets and City and Hackney as well as Luton and Bedfordshire.

Appraise the impact of chronic illness on the patient and their family
Identify common themes in the management of chronic conditions
Recognise the role of patients in caring for themselves and identify and learn from patient expertise, particularly in dealing with chronic conditions.
Explain the roles played by different members of the multi-disciplinary health care team (MDT) and how the patient’s care is optimised by effective team working
Discuss the different roles that may be played by the doctor in working with the MDT to care for the patient e.g. clinical leader, patient advocate, team manager, teacher.
Reflect on the doctor’s role as leader and the prerequisite skills to lead.
Demonstrate the taking of a social history from a patient
Understand the inter-dependent relationship of symptoms and social factors (such as housing, education and employment) on the experience of illness for patients and their families
Debate the impact of issues relating to equality and diversity i.e. disability, race, gender, sexuality on access to services, and on health behaviours and outcomes.
Identify and evaluate the health promotion interventions provided by your service for its client group
Describe the impact of public health measures on population health in your service area and specifically related to your patient and their illness

Year 4 - QMUL Students

Students will spend 5 weeks at a psychiatric clinical placement. They will receive a log book which outlines the minimum requirements during this time, which includes five consultant teaching sessions, one observed clinical task, five case summaries and practice prescription writing. Please note: placements are subject to change due to Covid19 for this academic year

There are also many opportunities available at each clinical placement and a list of recommended activities are included in the log book e.g. shadowing junior doctors and other members of the multidisciplinary team, home visits, attending patient reviews and clinical meetings.

During the course of clinical placement there will be weekly teaching sessions. These will have a clinical focus and be Borough-based. At least one of these sessions will be a ‘Balint group’. A Balint group is a widely used method for looking at the doctor-patient relationship. Students do not need to do any preparation for the session but will be invited to present a case they have encountered for discussion and reflection. The groups will be facilitated by experienced psychiatrists.

There are also many additional opportunities available at each clinical placement and there are opportunities for special interest sessions in other areas at the discretion of the Consultant Tutor.

Undergraduate placements in Bedfordshire

Bedfordshire works closely with the University of Cambridge and has historically been one of the Year 5 psychiatric placements of the clinical school. Four rotations in the academic year that are four weeks long are offered to the medical students, hosting a total of 36 students.

These have consistently been very well received by the students and the clinical school, with high rates of success in psychiatric exams amongst the students attending the Bedfordshire rotation.

We offer a variety of experiences in various psychiatric settings, facilitated by a group of very experienced and enthusiastic local educators. The focus is always around covering the required curriculum but also fostering the students’ personal interests in order to give an above all useful experience.

Apart from the daily clinical placements that are based on a well organised timetable, students have the opportunity to shadow junior doctors during their oncalls, attend Mental Health Act assessments out of hours, participate in research and QI projects, attend the local academic programme and do special interest sessions of their choice. There are also three small group tutorials during each placement on important aspects of psychiatry that are offered to the students by experienced clinicians and are interactive and primarily clinical. There is a marking session which takes place at the end of the placement during which the ability to progress for each student is determined.

The teaching of psychiatry has been extended into the 6th year of the clinical medicine course, and 9 tutorials are organised for students throughout the year, these tutorials run alongside the medicine and surgical attachments at Bedford Hospital. Their purpose is to blend psychiatry with the medical and surgical experiences in a clinically relevant way that will help students become more confident in their clinical practice as Foundation doctors.

The tutorial topics are Somisation/Conversion, Flexible discussion time on cases, Depression and Anxiety, Suicide Risk Assessment,) “Patient who wants to leave”/legal frameworks, Delirium and Dementia, Alcohol/Substance misuse

In the last two years, Bedfordshire has also been collaborating with the Queen Mary University of London, facilitating clinical placements for Physician Associate students. These are three weeks long and are mainly based on inpatient wards but the students also have the opportunity to shadow junior doctors oncall or do special interest sessions of their choice. On occasions, Bedfordshire has been the students’ elective placement of choice.