Taking on the doctor role in whole-task simulation.

Background: Untimed simulated primary care consultations focusing on safe and effective clinical outcomes were first introduced into undergraduate medical education in Otago, New Zealand, in 2004. We extended this concept and included a secondary care version for final-year students. We offer students opportunities to manage entire consultations, which include making and implementing clinical decisions with simulated patients (SPs).

The epidemiology of teaching and training General Practices in England.

There is no national picture of teaching and training practices or the communities they serve. We aimed to describe the association between general practices' engagement with education and their characteristics, locality and patients' health-status and satisfaction. This data linkage study of all English practices calculated odds ratios for teaching and training status and practice, locality and patient variables.

Teaching and learning clinical reasoning: tutors' perceptions of change in their own clinical practice.

Background: Clinical reasoning is an important skill for all clinicians and historically has rarely been formally taught either at undergraduate or postgraduate level. Clinical reasoning is taught as a formal course in the fourth year of the undergraduate programme at Keele School of Medicine by tutors who are all practicing general practitioners.

Aim: We aimed to explore the tutors' perceptions about how teaching on the course has impacted on their own consultation skills.

Grades in formative workplace-based assessment: a study of what works for whom and why.

Context: Grades are commonly used in formative workplace-based assessment (WBA) in medical education and training, but may draw attention away from feedback about the task. A dilemma arises because the self-regulatory focus of a trainee must include self-awareness relative to agreed standards, which implies grading.

Objectives: In this study we aimed to understand the meaning which medical students construct from WBA feedback with and without grades, and what influences this.

Undergraduate teaching in UK general practice: a geographical snapshot.

Background: Learning in general practice is an essential component of undergraduate medical education; currently, on average, 13% of clinical placements in the UK are in general practice. However, whether general practice can sustainably deliver more undergraduate placements is uncertain.

Aim: To identify the geographical distribution of undergraduate teaching practices and their distance from the host medical school.