Below is some information in FAQ format about the Community and Rural Education Route (CARER) Programme. It covers the following questions:
- What happens in a typical CARER week?
- Do I spend the whole year in general practice? Will I be in a hospital at all?
- What about leaving Cardiff behind for the year?
- What if I miss opportunities others in bigger centres get?
- Is CARER a life sentence?
- Will CARER harm my exam marks?
- If there’s no difference to my exams, then what’s the point?
- Where do CARER students live?
- Who are the staff to talk to, and what are their contact details?
What happens in a typical CARER week?
Half the week is spent in the GP surgery, usually one-to-one with a member of staff from the practice. This is the core of the experience and it will gradually change from a more passive role watching consultations, to taking the reins and often seeing your own patients with supervision of some kind. There is weekly teaching for one day a week, which ranges from clinical skills or examination, to tutorials delivered by local staff or Cardiff faculty. There may also be recorded lectures from Cardiff if these are needed to meet any outstanding learning outcomes. This variety makes sure you do not miss something the traditional route receives. Finally, one day a week is devoted to working on your SSC, which during CARER is done in a longitudinal format across the year rather than in one block of eight weeks. There is usually some variable amount of white space which students will be able to fill with whatever they think they need to work on, or follow up patients if they are receiving care locally e.g. specialist clinics or procedures.
Do I spend the whole year in general practice? Will I be in a hospital at all?
There are scheduled placements in the hospital local to Aberystwyth, for a total of 4 weeks out of the year. Some of Cardiff’s learning outcomes for year 3 are very specific to hospital: it would be impossible to practice a surgical scrub in general practice, for instance. The time in hospital is usually divided between teams such as emergency medicine and surgery to deliver these outcomes.
What about leaving Cardiff behind for the year?
There are many worries that students have before taking what must seem to each and every one like a leap of faith and a step into the unknown. Bear in mind that, even on a traditional third year, your placements will take you all across the length and breadth of Wales. Those in the traditional third year may move from place to place, out of sync with their friends and housemates, and some only return to Cardiff for the teaching weeks. Living in the same community for a year may offer you the opportunity to make close links with the other students – both your peers in CARER and students from Aberystwyth University.
What if I miss opportunities others in bigger centres get?
It is true that to experience specialties like neurosurgery, paediatric orthopaedics, transplant surgery, plastics, genetic medicine, cardiothoracics etc., you would need to be in a large tertiary centre, most probably. However, there are two more years of hospital medicine waiting for you after CARER, which probably afford enough time to experience rarer specialities if you are interested.
Some students worry they will not see the variety of clinical cases that their peers who are in giant teaching hospitals might receive. Especially at the start of CARER, students worry they won’t see enough. The reassuring news is that, if anything, this feeling seems to be inverted during the course of the year. CARER students often report that from the mid-point onward they seem to see a greater variety of presentations, and have deeper involvement with them, than their hospital-based peers. This is probably linked to the sheer volume of cases they get to see in general practice.
Is CARER a life sentence?
The short answer is: no, it’s not a life sentence. When you pass the third year, you progress as normal into fourth year. If you do CARER in Aberystwyth you return to your schedule of traditional hospital based placements for fourth year, wherever in Wales that is organised (or begin an intercalated degree if that is your plan).
Will CARER harm my exam marks?
Again, the short answer is no. There are several years of data which Cardiff have on the academic performance of CARER students in progress tests compared to their peers in the traditional third year. So far, there is no statistically significant evidence that doing CARER will disadvantage students.
If there’s no difference to my exams, then what’s the point?
Most of the benefits reported by students who have done CARER can’t be measured by an examination that year. In a typical year of hospital placements you meet new teams all the time, sometimes as often as every week. In CARER the staff who you learn alongside remain the same throughout the year, and most students report this gives them the feeling they are better known and understood. This translates to teaching better tailored to their knowledge and their interests. A feeling of being genuinely valued as part of the clinical team is something very commonly stated by students completing CARER. Over the course of the year you will probably see more patients (by an order of magnitude!) than your colleagues in hospital – and not just see them, but speak to them, formulate their diagnosis and be involved in their management. You may also have the opportunity to have them return to see you personally and monitor their progress.
The locations CARER runs in are also beautiful. Aberystwyth sits in the middle of Cardigan Bay and is surrounded by rolling green hills, dramatic cliffs and to the North the lower reaches of Snowdonia. Having the opportunity to be in such a beautiful situation while studying may appeal to many of you.
If you are interested in a career in general practice, a year attached to a practice will give you invaluable experience and opportunity to see not just clinical medicine but the running of a business and learn from all the staff who make a practice tick.
If general practice does not interest you, one-on-one teaching, a large case volume under supervision and a deeper student-mentor relationship may still tempt you. There is also a broader variety of cases than simply what is expected in year 3, so those with interest in specialties such as psychiatry, paediatrics, gynaecology, dermatology or rheumatology will likely see cases that in a hospital would be the remit of these specialities which students normally have to wait until fourth year to experience.
Where do CARER students live?
This has varied from year to year. Many choose to organise private student accommodation, just as you would in Cardiff, for the year’s duration; an alternative taken up by some students in different years has been accommodation in halls of residence in Aberystwyth. Typically, students live within the town they are based in, as this is where most rental properties are located and it also allows students to commute easily and experience the social life of the local university.
Who are the staff to talk to, and what are their contact details?
If you have questions which aren’t answered, please ask and we will answer to the best of our abilities.
The generic email to address any questions about CARER is ugmedicyr2@cardiff.ac.uk. This is staffed by Cardiff university rather than either of the CARER sites, but would undoubtedly be able to signpost you onward if they couldn’t answer a question directly.
The administration of the Aberystwyth arm can be contacted on cmestaff@aber.ac.uk.
The author of this FAQ can be reached at Edward.Hatfield@wales.nhs.uk.
