St George's, University of London Clinical Teaching Fellows (CTFs) are fully qualified junior doctors, centrally involved in creating, developing and delivery core clinical teaching to our medical students whilst on their clinical placements across our partner trust network.
As employees of NHS trusts, Clinical Teaching Fellows are usually based at our partner teaching hospitals. For example, CTF roles are available at many of our partner teaching hospitals including St. George's, Epsom & St. Helier, Croydon, Kingston, Ashford & St. Peter's, Frimley, East Surrey, Royal Surrey and the South West London & St. George's Mental Health Trust to name a few.
Clinical Teaching Fellows roles are usually undertaken 'out of programme', over a 12 month period, and will normally focus on teaching undergraduate students in a particular specialty area e.g. acute medicine, general medicine, general surgery, geriatrics, neurology, cardiology, emergency medicine, paediatric medicine, psychiatry etc. Some partner trusts offer CTF posts that involve a split role, mixing both teaching and clinical work, that may include on-call responsibilities. Other partner trusts offer the opportunity for CTFs to focus predominantly on undergraduate teaching and education, including curriculum design and/or research and may offer further flexibility for the CTF to develop their clinical experience in the specialty of their choice.
Working as a CTF at St George’s, University of London offers a variety of educational prospects in both teaching and assessment, with the opportunity to further develop your interest in medical education by undertaking our Higher Education Academy (HEA) accredited Postgraduate Certificate course in Healthcare and Biomedical Education.
As well as leading on their own individual projects and teaching programmes at their respective trusts, our CTFs also get involved across a number of other teaching and assessment opportunities at St. George's, University of London, including (but not limited to):
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Early years (Clinical Sciences): marking reflective practice essays, helping to organise and run early years Clinical Competency Assessments (CCAs - previously OSCEs), facilitating group reflection sessions during the Early Years Clinical Experience (EYCE) attachments, clinical communication skills teaching
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T (Transitional) Year: facilitating student grand rounds, running and examining Clinical Competency Assessments (CCAs - previously OSCEs), standard setting for written examinations, writing examination questions, regular small-group and bedside teaching sessions, revision sessions
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P (Penultimate) Year: facilitating student grand rounds and contributing to planning and delivery of P Year examinations (both written and Clinical Competency Assessments (CCAs - previously OSCEs)), risk communication workshops, facilitating reflective practice sessions, providing mentoring and support to student repeating the year
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F (Final) Year: contributing to planning and delivery of MBBS final examinations (both written and Clinical Competency Assessments (CCAs - previously OSCEs)), supporting foundation year applications and providing guidance, facilitating leadership development sessions, breaking bad news teaching, providing mentoring and support to students repeating the year
Support
All Clinical Teaching Fellows are supported in their roles. A detailed induction is provided at the start of the year and ongoing support is provided both locally, by our partner trust education centres, and centrally, by the St. George's, University of London MBBS programme team.
Our Clinical Teaching Fellows join our local St. George's CTF network which enables CTFs from all of our partner trusts to interact with each other, sharing ideas and resources and generally supporting each other in their roles. Locally, regular CTF meetings provide additional opportunities for discussion (including with members of the MBBS academic faculty and the MBBS programme team), encouraging the sharing of good practice, useful teaching tools and resources, as well as new ideas and teaching initiatives.
Our Clinical Teaching Fellows are also encouraged to join the Academy of Medical Educators (AoME) and other educational bodies, to help facilitate national networking and to gain access to a wider range of discussions and support from like-minded CTFs and other medical educators across the UK.
Honorary contracts
All CTF postholders are invited to apply for a one-year 'Honorary Clinical Lecturer' contract with St. George's, University of London, which covers the tenure of their CTF role. Honorary contract queries should be directed to Education Operations Assistant, Radhika Ratra