The Clinical Skills and Medical Research course is designed and delivered by real healthcare scientists to provide medical school applicants with the opportunity to gain hands on experience working in a realistic clinical setting and using real laboratory equipment. The course supports medical school applications as well as Biomedical Science candidates as prior lab experience is now seen as a prerequisite by many schools.

Designed to give you hands-on experience in both a laboratory and clinical setting. You will gain practical skills and will be trained by real scientists and health professionals in a setting that will help prepare you for your future career. This course is perfect for students interested in healthcare subjects including medicine, nursing and Biomedical Science.

The Clinical Skills and Medical Research course runs from 9:30am – 4pm for 5 consecutive days with an hour break for lunch. We teach at a low student to tutor ratio (8:1) meaning that students are supervised and encouraged throughout their course.

Day 1 – Clinical Skills I:

Students will learn how to take a patient history and to carry out a head-to-toe patient assessment. Students will learn how to perform basic life support (CPR) on adults, children and infants, as well as how to interpret NEWS charts, take a blood pressure reading using a sphygmomanometer, and measure electrocardiogram (ECG) readings.

Day 2 – Clinical Skills II

Students will be taught about lung anatomy, physiology and pathology. Students will then learn how to carry out peak flow measurements & spirometry for the assessment of lung function and diagnosis of asthma & COPD. Students will learn how to interpret chest X-rays and use patient data to diagnose disease.

Day 3 – Medical Research I

Students are inducted into a research laboratory and are taught how to work safely, how to use a micropipette and to prepare & serially dilute stock solutions using molarity calculations and measuring mass on a balance. In the afternoon session, students learn how to carry out blood typing in the lab to match a donor and recipient in a medical emergency.

Day 4 – Medical Research II

Students will get an in-depth understanding of pathology and immunology and will process a set of clinical samples using ELISA as a diagnostic assay to diagnose patients with an infectious disease. In the afternoon session, students will use all of their clinical & laboratory skills learned on the course to analyse a disease outbreak and will have the opportunity to learn gram staining of bacteria.

Day 5 – Student Presentations, Career Development Workshop and Certifications:

Student Presentations

At the end of the course students will present one of their experiments to the rest of the group in a formal presentation session. The audience will be able to ask questions and provide an opportunity for students to show what they have learned during the course of the week.

Career Development Workshop

Students will attend a networking session with BioGrad scientists where they will have the chance to discuss the many career paths within science and how to gain research experience. This will allow students to build on the laboratory experience gained during this residential course and further their scientific and medical careers.

• Students attending this course are typically on track to apply for either medical school or Biomedical science with a background studying science subjects.
• A level Biology or equivalent is required to keep up with the course material.

During this 5-day course, students will learn transferable skills suitable for future medical studies or laboratory work:

• Understand normal cardiac & pulmonary anatomy and physiology and common diseases.
• Understand how to take a patient history.
• Perform basic life support on adults, children and infants.
• Interpret NEWS charts and assess patient vital signs.
• Take blood pressure readings using a sphygmomanometer.
• Take electrocardiogram readings at rest and exertion.
• Use peak flow, spirometry & X-rays to diagnose lung conditions.
• Make stock solutions and explain how they calculate the concentration to prepare the stocks.
• Use the balance to weigh chemicals and prepare serial dilutions.
• Use different types of pipettes safely, adjust and measure the pH of various stock solutions.
• Perform and analyse ELISA results.
• Perform gram staining of bacteria.
• Perform blood typing.

Time is given throughout the course for students to gain a proper understanding of the skills being taught with an opportunity to redo anything that has not been understood at any point.