Aspects of General Practice Studied by University of Bristol Students

During the final year of the undergraduate curriculum in the University of Bristol, all final year medical students are attached to the Department of Community Health for a full-time, 9-week, 'Medicine in the Community' course. The teaching on this course includes epidemiology and medical statistics, the principles of medical care systems, occupational and environmental health, and General Practice. Details of the course and its objectives have been previously described (Lennard, 1975; Macara, 1973). Although the University of Bristol does not yet have an academic Department of General Practice (Whitfield, 1982), and it is not certain what arrangements are best suited within universities for the provision of undergraduate experience of General Practice (Marinker, 1983), the objectives of the University of Bristol General Practice attachments are similar to those reported for academic departments of General Practice (Harris 1983). Evaluations of the 9-week 'Medicine in the Community' course have been undertaken since 1975 to measure whether the course objectives are met. These evaluations have shown that students