Course summary

This degree will prepare you for a rewarding working life as a foundation doctor in the NHS and your career beyond. Our course is structured over five years to allow you to acquire knowledge, clinical skills and professional attitudes within an integrated spiral curriculum. Our aim is to produce great clinicians who understand people and the environment in which we live. The programme initially focuses on preparing you for learning in higher education and building a platform for integrated clinical sciences. This is delivered in the classroom, practical classes, lectures and the virtual learning environment. You learn to apply your knowledge in the clinical environment, both in hospital and community settings. The programme emphasises the importance of learning science in the clinical context, and the central place of the patient in a doctor’s work. We firmly believe that patients are at the heart of medical education and as such you will be introduced to patients from the first year. You will learn about common medical conditions from real patients, as well as their doctors, in authentic and impressively equipped facilities. Patient safety, science knowledge, scholarship, and the service role of doctors are unifying themes throughout. As you progress through the programme you will find there is increasing emphasis on the acquisition of clinical skills, initially in a simulated environment progressing to extended clinical placements with increasing responsibility in hospital and community settings throughout Wales. Throughout the course, you are expected to display the professional attributes of doctors in training. By the time you graduate, you will have demonstrated that care of patients is your first concern. With full engagement in the course, you will be able to apply knowledge and skills in a competent and ethical manner, and use your ability to provide leadership and to analyse complex and uncertain situations. You will have achieved all the outcomes and clinical competencies required by the General Medical Council set out in ‘Tomorrow’s Doctors 2009’. The Medicine programme is recognised as a Primary Medical Qualification under the Medical Act, and graduates of the programme may apply for provisional registration with the General Medical Council. Distinctive features Whilst an Undergraduate at Cardiff University you will benefit from •A cutting-edge spiral curriculum based on evidence gathered from across the world •Teaching from internationally-renowned researchers and clinicians •Excellent teaching facilities •Having the whole of Wales as your classroom, meaning you get a breadth of clinical experience from small, rural GP practices and small cottage hospitals to fast-paced city A&E departments and complex surgical specialties •A smooth transfer into the first year of your career as a doctor.