Can a training hub deliver undergraduate medical education with patient educators?

Abstract

Background: In England, localised training hubs have been developed to plan and upskill the primary care and community health workforce. We evaluated whether a medical school could work with a training hub to deliver an undergraduate medical education course, co-facilitated by patient educators. No published research has evaluated this model before.Methods: We explored the feasibility and value of training hub delivery using before and after surveys (617 students), interviews ( 28) and focus groups (20 people) with undergraduate medical students, patient educators and training hub and medical school team members.Findings: It was feasible for a training hub to develop and co-deliver a workshop with patient educators. The hub was able to recruit and retain patient educators more effectively than the medical school alone. Patient educators said they felt valued and developed new skills. 61% of Year 4 undergraduate students (first clinical year) took part, a high attendance rate during the COVID-19 pandemic. 80% of students said they learnt a lot about managing conditions in primary care and the community. They particularly valued engaging with patient educators and seeing interprofessional working between GPs and pharmacists.Conclusions: Medical schools can find it difficult to manage primary care education due to the geographical spread of learning across multiple sites and professionals. Working with training hubs may be a way to mitigate this. This small evaluation suggests that this is a model that could be tested further.