Developing Undergraduate Curriculum Resources on Health and Work in Medical Education

We report on a project commissioned by Public Health England (PHE) to develop a set of online curriculum resources on health and work that will be universally available to all UK medical schools. The project is underpinned by the General Medical Council’s Outcomes for Graduates 2018, which includes an expectation that newly qualified doctors will be able to demonstrate appropriate Communication and Interpersonal Skills.

The aim of the project is to improve the health and work dialogue between doctors of the future and patients. The set of learning resources and teaching aids is intended to provide knowledge, tools and techniques to improve future doctors’ confidence to start conversations with patients around health and work and the ‘fit note’. The resources will help new doctors use the fit note as a practical advice system as well as a process for sickness certification. The background to this work lies within the Government’s national vision to reduce health-related worklessness and help individuals achieve their work and health potential, which it set out in its command paper Improving Lives: the Future of Work, Health and Disability.

The presentation will outline the process of co-producing curriculum resources via partnership between healthcare professionals, patient and public involvement representatives, academics and national government organisations. We will then set out the planned approach for embedding the new resources via a three-stage process involving (i) piloting, (ii) phasing-in and (iii) full implementation. Some of the barriers and enablers encountered in piloting the resources in medical schools will be discussed.