As Associate Dean of Clinical Studies UK, Professor Stoker has responsibility for the academic aspects of the clinical programme in the UK. He reports to Robert T. Grant, MD, MSc, FACS the SGU Senior Clinical Associate Dean and Dean of the School of Medicine Marios Loukas, MD, PhD.. Dean Stoker is supported by the UK Deans’ Advisory Board, consisting of the UK Associate Dean of Students, the UK Assistant Associate Dean of Students and Associate Director of Career Guidance UK and the seven UK Departmental Associate Chairs. Professor Stoker was a Consultant General and Upper GI Surgeon in London and for 30 years has been closely involved with undergraduate medical education at St George’s University School of Medicine. He has held Clerkship Director and Director of Medical Education posts in the past and was the UK Chair of the Department of Surgery for SGU for 12 years. He has extensive experience of London Medical School education having been Undergraduate Sub-Dean at North Middlesex University Hospital, and having sat on the University College London Undergraduate Education Committee for many years.
Message from the UK Associate Dean To St George’s students
Greetings! You will have already experienced from your time spent studying the basic medical sciences on the island of Grenada, the amazing educational value of study combined with travel. So, when you come to begin clinical training, your basic science knowledge will have vastly increased, but your knowledge of other cultures will have also further enriched your life experience which will remain with you forever. This makes St. George’s International University School of Medicine unique, and you are strongly encouraged to continue to take advantage of combining your clinical training with travel. This is why St George’s is truly international, offering medical education on three
continents. You therefore have a golden opportunity to participate in clinical training in both the UK and the USA, a course strongly recommended and rightly endorsed by the School. Medical schools’ curricula are increasingly focusing on culture and ethnicity to produce doctors adequately trained for the global world in which we now live. St. George’s has been in the vanguard of this approach for many years.
The UK Clinical Faculty are very proud of their long and close association with St George’s and its students which began in 1979 and is a tradition they all wish to maintain.
The 14 Affiliated National Health Service Hospitals where you will be taught are all very busy with an unsurpassed wealth of clinical material both in variety and number. Emphasis is on out-patient clinical teaching, ward rounds and theatre time, as well as significant study time.
Students give regular clinical presentations, with close attention being paid to the art of taking a focused history and the learning of patient centred communication skills. This stresses the importance we place on the humanistic and empathetic aspects of medicine - the Art of the Science. Given the importance of the end of core NBME exams which all students must pass in order to graduate, great emphasis is placed on teaching clinical knowledge, but physical examination is also taught and assessed, thereby building on the clinical skills learnt in Grenada. Teaching is often on a one-to-one basis.
Our Administrative Head Office is in Winchester and we have fully trained staff who will advise you about your placements and accommodation and will answer any other queries you might have. Our staff contact details can be found in the brochure. Each hospital has a Student Co-ordinator who is there to help you with accommodation, timetables
and any social queries or concerns, and there is also a Director of Medical Education who is overall responsible for teaching at each Hospital. The DME is assisted by Clerkship Directors for all Core rotations, who will guide you through your timetables and also aid you at the mid-core and final assessment.
All hospitals have excellent internet access, and have libraries containing standard textbooks from the School’s recommended reading list many on-line medical journals. Given the importance of the NBME exams we now have a Workshop for you to attend at the beginning of your UK attachments, introducing you to clinical work, and how to approach these crucial exams. We also have a Mentoring scheme where all students can have access to a mentor.
All students arriving in the UK do a SIM Lab simulation course on critical illness which also emphasises communication skills. You will also have continual open access to postgraduate career advice through the UK Office of Career Guidance.
In the past, primary care teaching in the UK was confined to Emergency Medicine but we now have an increasing number of affiliated General Practices who teach General Practice/Family Medicine. They offer six-week cores, preferably at the end of the third year, and four-week electives in the fourth year.
Given the relatively small size of our country, travel is easy, by train or bus or car; no need for high expenditure on air fares once you are here. The UK is also a great place to visit with its long and great history, traditions, art, architecture, music, theatre, countryside and some wonderful old English pubs, so it’s a great place for extra-curricular activities including sport. Some hospitals have access to sporting centres and gymnasia.
Please consider coming to the UK for some of your clinical training and witness the National Health Service, which since its inception in 1948 has provided healthcare to all patients free at the point of delivery.
-Mr David L Stoker BSc MBChB MD FRCS(Ed) FRCS(Eng)