Piloting the Health and Work Curriculum in Undergraduate Medical Education in England

Background:

We report on a project commissioned by the UK Government’s executive agency Public Health England (PHE) to develop and pilot a set of curriculum resources on health and work that were available to six medical schools in England. This project is underpinned by the 2018 Outcomes for Graduates developed by the UK’s General Medical Council (or GMC), which sets the standards for medical schools in the UK. It includes an expectation that newly qualified doctors will be able describe the principles of holding a fitness for work conversation with patients…and how to make referrals to colleagues and other agencies.

The aim of this project was to improve the health and work dialogue between doctors of the future and patients. The background to this work lies within the UK 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 purpose of the pilot was to answer the question, “Is it feasible to implement the teaching of health and work topics into the medical school curriculum?”

Objectives

The overarching aim of the project was to design and pilot an integrated curriculum for future doctors that addresses how to communicate with service users/patients about staying in and returning to work.

Methods

Qualitative and quantitative methods were employed involving telephone interviews with course tutors prior to and following the teaching pilot, student surveys and focus groups in each of the six medical schools who took part in the pilot.

Results

The results indicated: where aspects of the curriculum improved understanding of broaching health and work conversations; helped to recognise what factors facilitated further learning; what support and advice the tutors required to teach the materials, and where additional resources were needed to help deliver the teaching resources. Lastly, the results highlighted what some of the limitation were with introducing the health and work curriculum.

Conclusions

This pilot study showed it was possible to introduce a set of curriculum resources on health and work in English medical schools, with course tutors welcoming the opportunity of using a range of teaching materials aimed at undergraduate medical education.