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Brighton and Sussex Medical School
Brighton and Sussex Medical School
Established	2002
Type	Medical school
Dean	Prof Jonathan Cohen
Undergraduates	686 (as of Oct 07)
Location	Brighton, Sussex, United Kingdom
Campus	Falmer
Typical Offer	AAB
Affiliations	University of Sussex and University of Brighton
Website	http://www.bsms.ac.uk

Coordinates: 50°51′54″N 0°05′06″W / 50.865°N 0.085°W / 50.865; -0.085

East Sussex portal

Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS) is one of a number of new medical schools formed in the UK following the Labour Governments 1997 election victory. Like other UK medical schools it is based on the principles and standards of 'Tomorrow's Doctor', an initiative by the General Medical Council outlining the role of British practitioners. The medical school itself is a partnership between the University of Brighton and the University of Sussex. Students are technically full members of both universities with access to both sets of facilities. The school gained its license in 2002, its initial course being a heavily modified version of the University of Southampton course. It admits approximately 136 students per year with all of them being based for the first two years on the split campus at Falmer. As of 2008 the school accepts some 138 British medical students and an additional 10 from overseas, at 16 applications per place it is one of the most popular courses in the UK^[1].

[edit] Introduction

The first intake of students began their five-year medical degree programmes in September 2003. Since then, it has become one of the most popular medical schools in the country. According to UCAS statistics, 2005 saw BSMS as the most competitive medical school to gain a place at, largely due to the low number of places offered.

[edit] Falmer

The University of Sussex is situated in Falmer, just out of Brighton and has direct pedestrian access into the planned South Downs National Park. Falmer is roughly 9 minutes away from Brighton City Centre. The campus is situated across the A27 and South Coast railway line from the Sussex Falmer site. Both the Brighton and Sussex Falmer sites have accommodation, shopping facilities and other ancillary services.

[edit] Teaching

The curriculum is a blend of both progressive and traditional teaching methods, based around lectures, practicals and small group based learning. BSMS does not use Problem Based Learning.

The University of Brighton provides the professional aspects of the course through its faculties of health, sciences and engineering using experience from other healthcare courses such as nursing and midwifery. In contrast Sussex provides primarily biological science and anatomy teaching for which it is better suited due to the close proximity of the Sussex portion of the medical school to the University of Sussex school of life sciences 'John Maynard Smith' building. Also located close by are the medical research building and the genome damage stability and control centre (an MRC research facilitiy).

The medical school requires human dissection of cadavers as a compulsory part of the course. This means the course is far more anatomically based than that of most other modern UK medical schools. As well as the emphasis on anatomy, BSMS also gives early clinical exposure, with students from preclinical years occasionally going on placements.

BSMS is notable for giving advice on PDAs and offers discounted software for students.

[edit] The intercalated degree

Although BSMS does not offer an accelerated graduate entry programme, subject to performance students may be offered the opportunity to study subjects of their choice in greater depth by taking an intercalated BSc degree in Medical Science (resulting in an extended 6 year course). This is taken between the third and fourth years of the BM BS studies and provides the necessary academic background for those who wish to embark on a career combining medical practice with medical research. It is possible to transfer to undertake the degree and then return to complete the medical course at BSMS.

[edit] Teaching hospitals and clinical placements

Students will undertake a range of clinical placements, mainly at the Royal Sussex but extending into other trust and primary care settings. The University Hospitals NHS Trust provides a full range of clinical specialties with major centres in cardiology/cardiovascular surgery, cancer, renal dialysis, neurosurgery and HIV medicine.

The clinical placements are served in the teaching hospitals throughout the south-east, including many in Kent, and all Sussex hospitals, such as the Royal Sussex County Hospital.

[edit] The Royal Sussex County Hospital

The hospital provides general hospital services and specialist services, including cancer Services (Sussex Cancer Centre Fund, Cardiac (heart) Surgery, Maternity Services, Renal (kidney) Services, Intensive Care for Adult and Intensive Care for new born babies. It also houses the new Audrey Emerton Building, a medical education centre and library at where 3rd and 4th years are based. It was opened by Baroness Audrey Emerton in 2005.

[edit] The Brighton General Hospital

Brighton General Hospital is the headquarters of South Downs Health NHS Trust.

[edit] The Princess Royal Hospital

The Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath, West Sussex, is part of the Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals Trust. It is situated in the heart of Mid Sussex and the hospital enjoys far reaching views over the South Downs.

[edit] Regional attachment

In Year 5 students undertake clinical attachments in two different regional locations allocated from: Chichester, Eastbourne, Hastings, Haywards Heath, Redhill, Worthing and Brighton. Attachments will be available throughout the range of departments in an acute district general hospital, as well as community placements in mental health and general practice.

[edit] Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust

Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust is one of the largest teaching Trusts in the country providing general and specialist acute hospital care for more than a million people.

Services are located on two main sites, the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath and the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton, which work in partnership with other local community hospitals, GP practices and clinics.

The Trust provides district general hospital services to the local population of some 460,000. It also provides a range of specialist services including cancer services, neurosciences, cardiac surgery, renal services and intensive care for adults, children and new-born babies. The Trust is a very large public sector employer, employing some 5,500 staff with an annual budget of over £300 million. The Trust manages around 1,140 beds and provides the majority of its services from two main sites:

The Royal Sussex County Hospital campus (including the Sussex Eye Hospital) in Brighton

The Princess Royal Hospital campus (including the Hurstwood Park Neurological Centre) in Haywards Heath.

Children's services are currently provided by the Royal Alexandra Hospital for Sick Children in Brighton. The Trust is in the process of transferring a contract for the re-provision of these services to the Royal Sussex County Hospital, with a planned opening in the spring of 2007.

[edit] CIRU

The Brighton and Sussex Clinical Investigation and Research Unit (CIRU) is a £4 million state-of-the-art facility which offers a range of specialised equipment and resources to carry out clinical investigations, patient-centred research and research training. It is available for use by researchers from the regional health and academic sectors. It is a partnership between Brighton and Sussex Medical School and Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust. The unit opened in September 2006 and has been developed to underpin the development of the medical school and Trust's research strategy.

[edit] CISC

The Clinical Imaging Sciences Centre (CISC) is located on the University campus at Falmer. It is due to open in summer 2007. It houses an integrated Positron Emission Tomography-Computed Tomography (PET-CT) imaging system and a 1.5T Magnetic Resonance (MR) imager. It provides an important resource for the School's research, particularly in oncology and neuroscience.

[edit] Institute of Postgraduate Medicine

The Institute of Postgraduate Medicine (IPGM) was founded in 2000 with Professor Richard Vincent as the Head of School. In 2006 it became one of the four academic divisions of Brighton and Sussex Medical School. The department contributes to both undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and also to the research output of the School.

With 80 modules up to Masters level, IPGM provides three main programmes of study including:

Clinical Specialties - Cardiology, Diabetes, Nephrology, Trauma & Orthopaedics.

Public Health - Child Health, Epidemiology, Research Methods and Critical Appraisal, Women's Health and Psychiatry.

Professional development - Primary Care, Personal Development, Leadership, Medical Education, Quality & Clinical Governance, Evidence-based Practice, and Knowledge & Management.

Staff research projects in the department include the preparation and support of medical teachers involved in inter-professional education; complexity theory in medical education, leadership and management; experience of non-graduates studying Masters courses; and the development of clinical reasoning in medical undergraduates.

Professor Vincent is also the lead for Phase 3 of the undergraduate curriculum at BSMS and Head of the Medical Education Unit (MEU).

[edit] School media

The BSMS Newsletter is published every term. The new BSMS student newspaper, The Murmur, is printed termly. The school also offers a large range of SSCs (student selected components), of which some include media and art related topics into the teaching.

[edit] Extra-curricular activities

[edit] BSMS Theatre Company

The First ever BSMS Medic Revue took place on Saturday 10th of November 2007 in front of a sell-out audience in the Sallis Benney Theatre, Brighton. The cast took the sell-out show to the Brighton Fringe Festival on the 13th May 2008, being one of the fastest selling shows in the fringe that year, earning a 4 star review from Three Weeks, the official Edinburgh and Brighton Fringe Festival Magazine.

The cast made a much anticipated return to the fringe with a brand new show on the 23rd and 24th of May 2009, again being one of the fastest selling shows in the Fringe that year. On the back of this success, the company recently performed a short set at Komdedia, a comedy club in Brighton.

The BSMS theatre company are returning to the Brighton Fringe in 2010 and are also planning to take the show to the Edinburgh festival in the future.

Further information about the company can be found at http://www.bsmstheatre.co.uk.

[edit] Sports

[edit] Football

The BSMS Men's Football Team won the first intramural league, based at the University of Brighton, and finished sixth at the National Association of Medical Schools (NAMS) tournament in Dublin.

[edit] External links

[edit] References

^ "www.ukmedicalschools.com British Medical School Statistics". ukmedicalschools.com. http://www.ukmedicalschools.com/index.php?pageid=stats. Retrieved 2008-09-08.

[statistics-0] "www.ukmedicalschools.com British Medical School Statistics". ukmedicalschools.com. http://www.ukmedicalschools.com/index.php?pageid=stats. Retrieved 2008-09-08.

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