Early evaluation and research of an LIC at Newcastle University
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Early evaluation and research of the year 4 Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship (LIC) at Newcastle University.
IRAS ID
280293
Contact name
Alastair Dodsworth
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Newcastle University
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 6 months, 25 days
Research summary
The Newcastle University MBBS curriculum is being re-designed. Due to the growing evidence of the benefits of Longitudinal Integrated Clerkships (LIC), all year 4 Newcastle University students will complete an LIC in 2020/21; making it the largest LIC worldwide (to the best of our knowledge). In the current model of medical training, medical students complete placements that are called block rotations (e.g. four weeks surgery, four weeks medicine, etc.). During an LIC, students: complete placements of 6 months or more, are supervised by the same supervisors throughout and integrate their clinical specialties throughout each week.
Thistlethwaite et al. (2013) reviewed the impact of LICs and showed LICs do improve outcomes for students, however, the authors noted a series of shortcomings. Namely, included programmes recruited volunteer student participants, few involved a whole year group, let alone comparison data, and there was limited data on the impact of LICs on the patients themselves. The authors recommended “there needs to be more exploration of the impact of the [LIC] placements on patients and their health outcomes” (p.1354).
Given the significant scale of this new LIC, the evaluation of its implementation is important as it is anticipated that the delivery of the LIC will need ongoing modifications to improve it. Therefore, it is critical participants in the LIC are asked for their experiences of the LIC so these may feed into the ongoing development and implementation of the LIC for the current and future year four medical students. Additionally, this LIC represents an unprecedented opportunity to conduct research on the impact of LICs on patients.
REC name
South West - Central Bristol Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
21/SW/0029
Date of REC Opinion
4 Mar 2021
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion