title: General practice in the undergraduate curriculum: 20 interviews with Southampton final-year students.
abstract: The Primary Medical Care Group at the University of Southampton contributes to the medical curriculum in the first, third and final years. A visiting lecturer from Sweden took the opportunity to interview a sample of 20 final-year students using a qualitative approach. Questioning centered on the impact of the primary care course both in relationship to medicine as a whole and to general practice. It was found that primary medical care was often not seen as a central or integral part of the curriculum but many students acknowledged its important contribution to seeing the patient as a whole and in integrating the various other parts of the curriculum, with significant opportunity for role modelling and informing career choice. A hidden curriculum emerged of attitudes which provided a conflict for some students. Improvements should include clearer dovetailing of primary medical care with other curricular components, limitation of aims with more specific and rigorous assessment and a wide strategy of staff development not confined to those directly involved in general practice attachments.
authors.affiliation: Primary Medical Care Group, Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, UK.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mattsson
authors.forename: G K
authors.initials: GK
authors.lastname: Freeman
authors.forename: C R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Coles
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schmedlin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002321:Career Choice; D003479:Curriculum; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate; D004739:England; D005194:Family Practice / Q000193:education*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013337:Students, Medical