CCP By Year

The CCP Team work with each year group of the MBChB programme in order to help students foster good communication skills and to help them deal with complex situations throughout their career. Below you will find a summary of CCP in each year group including the themes and topics covered.

Year 1 

Students are introduced to clinical communication in the medical setting. Core values, skills, and basic ideas and concepts are introduced. Themes covered include effective ways of gathering information with a person-centred approach and an overview of the medical history. 

Year 2 

Sessions aim to bridge the transition between university-based experience and hospital placements, helping students integrate core attributes of CCP taught in Year 1 into structured clinical history taking.

Topics covered include team communication, exploring the patient’s needs and perspective when taking a history, responding to emotions, and sharing information. 

Year 3 

There is a focus on integrating communication processes with students’ growing medical knowledge, including applying their clinical communication with increasing flexibility and purpose when engaging in clinical tasks. 

Practice of history taking in the clinical setting is complemented by small group workshops. Introducing themes such as communicating complex and difficult information, supporting shared decision making, talking about risk and uncertainty, and supporting change. 

Year 4 

Students practise communicating difficult information and having conversations about sensitive issues; they also learn how to break bad news and give complex information, alongside guidance on responding to complex clinical situations in an end-of-life care setting. 

Students also attend a Deaf Awareness training session run in conjunction with the Merseyside Society for Deaf People and receive additional training in communication with people with learning disabilities and their carers. 

Year 5 

Year 5 CCP workshops are delivered as part of FY1 PracTiSCE week (Practical Teaching in a Simulated Clinical Environment) during the acute block. PracTiSCE week is a week-long programme delivered in a safe and immersive learning environment, preparing student doctors - now in their final year - to step into their upcoming role as FY1 doctors.

Student doctors follow three patients on their journey through an acute admission, taking part in the assessment and management of dynamically evolving situations and working as part of a team. 

The week is delivered in close collaboration with clinical skills, simulation-based education and the prescribing team and consists of a series of workshops, immersive simulation and opportunities for skills practice, allowing students to combine their technical and communication skills, their awareness of clinical human factors and their critical thinking and management skills.

Discussion and debrief time are provided to support the student doctors in consolidating their knowledge and skills and identifying gaps in learning.