The Physician Associate Studies (MPAS) team at City St George's, University of London are committed to ensuring we provide the best clinical placement opportunities and experiences for our students. Quality assurance activity is at the heart of this commitment and enables us to explore, monitor and reflect on the placement provision we offer.
We expect all of our primary and secondary sites to adhere to and abide by the information outlined in our MPAS Quality Framework (PDF) and MPAS Quality Standards (PDF).
These expectations identify the fundamental requirements of our students and ensure processes are in place to support student progression within the clinical placement environment. Feedback and site visits are the tools we use to evaluate our placements, and they enable us to constructively improve placement experience for our students.
GMC visit 2024
Prior to formal regulation of the physician associate profession on 13 December 2024, the General Medical Council (GMC) visited City, St George’s in October, to further explore the MPAS programme. This quality activity was carried out as part of a wider GMC QA baselining exercise to learn more about the PA and anaesthesia associate (AA) programmes offered in the UK to prepare for their upcoming regulation. The GMC QA team was undertaking triangulating quality activities with all course providers as part of the existing courses approval process.
The in-person visit was attended by a GMC team, comprised of an Education Quality Analyst, Principal Education Quality Assurance Programme Manager and two independent PA Education Associates (a healthcare education specialist and a student associate). The areas explored in the meetings were identified in the analysis of a GMC Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ), a subsequent SAQ feedback meeting and a targeted action planning meeting carried out in advance of the meeting. All five themes of the GMC’s Promoting excellence were reviewed during the visit.
Overall feedback
The following comments were provided in the feedback report from the GMC visit team:
The school demonstrated a strong relationship between faculty and the students with effective communication.
Students feel comfortable to contact faculty with any questions, and they know which member of staff or service to contact for specific needs.
The curriculum reflects a diversity of patients and presentations, and it is encouraging to hear that there is continued work to further diversify the curriculum and assessments to better represent the London population.
The MPAS team looks forward to continuing this quality assurance work in collaboration with the GMC.