A SURVEY OF MEDICAL UNDERGRADUATE COMMUNITY-BASED TEACHING - TAKING UNDERGRADUATE TEACHING INTO THE COMMUNITY

This article summarizes the findings of a survey investigating the ext ent to which medical schools in the United Kingdom have developed comm unity-based undergraduate teaching: the types of courses being run and their content; whether they are being evaluated; and how the students are assessed. Courses have been categorized under four main headings: (1) based in general practice, for teaching about general practice as a clinical specialty or using practice patients for teaching general medicine and basic clinical skills; (2) community-oriented, led by GP or community tutors; (3) specialist teaching led by hospital consultan ts; and (4) agency-based teaching. Twenty-eight schools responded to a written request for information and details of 83 courses were receiv ed.