What is PLAN?
PLAN stands for Patients – Listening to them, Advising them and Negotiating with them (yes it is contrived, isn’t it?). It is a session where Reache members practice clinical scenarios with medical students, aimed primarily at improving their communication skills, though physical examinations and procedures are included from time to time. It takes place in the Reache centre on Wednesday evenings from 5 pm to 7 pm.
PLAN session
First we have something to eat and there is an opportunity to chat and get to know one another. There may be a warm up game related to the topic for the evening, which also helps to break the ice. After this, usually the group splits up into twos and threes to practise different scenarios. The topics for the scenarios for each week are chosen by PLAN participants and represent realistic healthcare (and also PLAB and medical student OSCE examination) situations. The group is split so that Reache members and UK students work together and are encouraged and assisted to give feedback and advice to each other on what was good and what could be better. The group is facilitated by Reache tutors Dr Pip Fisher or Mick Sykes (usually both).
What would we like medical students to do?
Join in! Most of the Reache members attending PLAN will have passed their English examination, but they will benefit from practising their English and having it corrected to something that local patients will understand – they know a lot of technical medical words, but not lay terms. And they often come from countries where the patient is expected to follow the doctor’s orders without questioning them, so negotiation, informed consent and careful checking of understanding may not be something they will have had much experience of. They very much appreciate learning about these and other things which make up the culture of UK health care – after all, they are aiming to work in the UK and it is nice to know the rules.
The topics for each session are decided a week in advance, so you can prepare for it, if you wish. In the scenarios that are practised in small groups, you will be given written roles for three people – a doctor, a patient and an examiner’s script. Most of the time, medical students will be taking the patient role, but it is also useful to be the observing examiner, or the doctor. The written roles give enough information for each group to practise the scenario realistically:
- The doctor will know the setting (ward or GP surgery), the name of the patient and a little about why they are seeing them.
- The patient will have more detailed information, including some social background and how they feel about the problem.
- The examiner will have a checklist based on OSCE criteria. This is useful when giving feedback and also to see what kind of things examiners are wanting from candidates (in medical student exams as well as PLAB)
I’d like to help – what do I do?
Get in touch through our Contacts page, saying who you are and that you are interested in helping with PLAN. We have links with MEDSIN and the number of student volunteers varies with the timing of exams and holidays. We cannot guarantee that there will always be an opportunity for you to help, but we haven’t turned anyone away yet because we have too many volunteers.
Anything else?
Yes – thanks for helping, and enjoy yourself. PLAN is structured, but informal and the atmosphere is friendly and relaxed. If your group spends some time discussing football or how bad ER was last night instead of just doing scenarios that is ok – everyone is here voluntarily.
Pip and Mick
