The General Practice Zone was funded by Health Education East Midlands in partnership with The University of Nottingham, University of Leicester and Derby and Derbyshire LMC. Taking part were seven primary healthcare professionals and 12 schools in the East Midlands.
Rob, the winner of the Zone, is a clinical teaching fellow at the United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust hoping to become a GP. Phil is a GP partner in Nettleham who also supports newly qualified GPs in the area. Kit is training to become a GP in a foundation programme for new doctors at Chesterfield Hospital and Deborah is an Advanced Nurse Practitioner at to GP surgeries in Derbyshire. Charnelle is a final year medical student, Ali is a Junior Doctor also studying a Masters in Medical Anthropology and Adrian is a General Practice Business Manager for a surgery in Beeston.
The majority of conversations in the Zone were careers based, with lots of interest in different areas of General Practice. The range of healthcare professionals gave students a great insight into different professions and all the professionals were good at giving balanced replies to their questions.
We also introduced an admissions officer role, able to add additional comments to students’ questions. As an expert on university admissions, they were able to add supporting information on applying to medical school to healthcare professionals’ answers as comments, such as questions on studying abroad and questions on entry requirements.