Undergraduate

The Department of General Practice plays a major role in medical student teaching regularly throughout the medical course. The course has a systems-based approach with an emphasis on early clinical exposure. The Department coordinates Health Practice 1, which introduces students to concepts of medical culture and ethics; and the Introduction to Clinical Medicine (ICM) general practice placements during semester 5.

The Department also offers student placements in the Advanced Medical Science (AMS) subject of the medical course (semesters 6 and 7). AMS is a research year undertaken by all school-leaver entry students. Students explore an area related to medicine in depth, chosen from a large range of topics. They are introduced to the formal processes of research and develop key skills in literature appraisal, data collection, analysis and presentation.

The culmination of general practice experience comes for all students in the final (12th) semester of the course, with a five-week placement in general practice. The Department coordinates over 200 urban and rural general practices for the placements and provides training and evaluation for the GP supervisors. More than 1/3 of teaching general practices are located in rural areas.

In 2008, the Department of General Practice organised 1,912 student placements in 359 health facilities across Victoria, including 274 general practices. This equates to around 58,000 student hours, of which 76% are spent in general practice. Other facilities include public hospitals, specialist consulting room Department of Optometry and ophthalmology clinics.

The Department also provides tutorials at the Parkville campus, at other suburban sites and at regional sites in Geelong, Ballarat and Shepparton, employing 106 tutors to deliver approximately 25,182 student hours of tutorials to 1,817 students. 97% of these tutorial student hours are delivered at the Parkville campus.