The systematic development of a novel integrated spiral undergraduate course in general practice

Keele University School of Medicine opened in 2002, initially delivering the Manchester MB ChB curriculum, with the aim that from 2007 it would deliver a 'distinctive Keele curriculum' which would 'graduate excellent clinicians'. This curriculum would be spiral and integrated in design, and delivered by a 'hybrid' model of learning methods, from small group interactive (including problem-based learning) through to large group and more didactic methods. It would be student-centred and include a strong focus on community and primary care contexts, the latter reflecting the origins of the university which grew out of the Workers' Education Alliance after the Second World War as the University College of North Staffordshire, becoming the University of Keele in 1962. The university has always had strong links with the Potteries and North Staffordshire, communities with long-standing problems of poor health status and recruitment of the necessary health workforce. While there are strong local drivers for medical students learning in and with the community, this is in a broader context of primary care becoming an increasingly important resource for medical undergraduate education arising from policy, health service and andragogy.

We were charged with the responsibility of developing the community element of the curriculum. This paper describes the systematic development of our general practice curriculum from 2007 to the present. We describe the decisions we made and general practice's current contribution to the curriculum. We will present our evaluation of the curriculum in a separate paper.