Undergraduate

Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust is a fantastic place to be an undergraduate, with excellent facilities and support, all in a beautiful location.

Our Students

At present students come from the University of Bristol Medical School, University College, London, Medical School and smaller numbers from other UK centres as well as undergraduate elective students from abroad.

We particularly welcome students from abroad and in recent years we have had students from Scotland, Ireland, Sweden, Germany, Austria, Poland, Syria, Czechoslovakia, Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the USA.

The Undergraduate Education Group

An Undergraduate Education Group, which is an officially formulated Trust committee, meets regularly and is chaired by Dr Harry Dalton. The committee includes members from all the specialties that are able to provide undergraduate educational opportunities within the RCHT.

The committee ensures that educational provision is kept to a high standard and is responsible for coordinating placements and collating and acting on the feedback from the students. The chairman and some of the committee members have degrees in Medical Education and others have tutored in a student-directed, small group, problem based (PBL) undergraduate environment.

Learning at Royal Cornwall Hospitals

Undergraduate medical education in Cornwall is largely based at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro – a busy District Hospital. Much of the undergraduate education is experiential. There is, however, a commitment to student-directed, problem-based learning on the McMaster model whenever possible.

This format is becoming increasingly important with acceptance of the concept of lifelong learning, a valuable aid to continuing professional development extending throughout an individual’s medical career.

Undergraduate placements can be offered in a wide range of areas.

Specialties

  • Accident and Emergency Medicine
  • Anaesthetics and Intensive Care
  • General Surgery
  • Maxillofacial Surgery
  • Obstetrics and Gynaecology
  • Orthopaedic Surgery
  • Pathology
  • Paediatric
  • Radiology
  • Thoracic Surgery
  • Urology

General Medicine

  • Urology
  • Dermatology
  • Endocrinology
  • Gastroenterology
  • Haematology
  • Nephrology
  • Respiratory medicine
  • Rheumatology

Weekly educational tutorial sessions are also provided by many specialties whenever there are undergraduate medical students within the hospital.

Many of the other specialties can offer a similar arrangement on an ad hoc basis if the educational need arises.

Attendance at these timetabled sessions is open to all undergraduate medical students irrespective of their specialty placement.

Page last reviewed: 26 June 2023

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