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Family Medicine

What Access to HE study should I take if I want to study Family Medicine ? I don’t have Level 3 or GCSE/A level qualifications… plus I’m 38 yrs old already. I’m currently working as a Band 3 in Adult and Child Care settings in the Hospital.

I really want to become a Family Physician and don’t know what I should take as a foundation study /entry to Family Medicine course..

Thank you for your time and would really appreciate your advice or suggestions

Reply 1

Hey there, thanks for posting a question in the Medicine forum. :biggrin:

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Official Undergraduate Medicine 2024 Entry
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Reply 2

Original post
by Cate28
What Access to HE study should I take if I want to study Family Medicine ? I don’t have Level 3 or GCSE/A level qualifications… plus I’m 38 yrs old already. I’m currently working as a Band 3 in Adult and Child Care settings in the Hospital.
I really want to become a Family Physician and don’t know what I should take as a foundation study /entry to Family Medicine course..
Thank you for your time and would really appreciate your advice or suggestions

Depends on the medical school. Have a look here:

https://www.medschools.ac.uk/for-students/applying-to-medical-school/entry-requirements/?course_type=standard-entry-medicine

Reply 3

Original post
by Cate28
What Access to HE study should I take if I want to study Family Medicine ? I don’t have Level 3 or GCSE/A level qualifications… plus I’m 38 yrs old already. I’m currently working as a Band 3 in Adult and Child Care settings in the Hospital.
I really want to become a Family Physician and don’t know what I should take as a foundation study /entry to Family Medicine course..
Thank you for your time and would really appreciate your advice or suggestions

@Cate28
Hi, I have taught on Access to HE for over 10 years. It's a bit of a difficult one to answer as the diploma title is not what is important, it is the content of the course that matters (what we called the modules, chemistry, biology etc. For instance, the pathway you are after is usually called Access to Health Science's at a lot of colleges, however, it may have a different name with the required modules elsewhere. It is best speaking to the admissions tutors at the university/ies you want to go onto to see which ones they recommend in your area

Marc
Arden University Student Ambassador

Reply 4

In the UK, "Family medicine" is provided by GP's. So you will need to do a medical degree with GP specialist training afterwards. Some medical schools accept Access courses but not all do, so check first. There are specific Access to Medicine courses available. I'd be cautious with the more general 'Access to Health' ones, as they'll be unlikely to have everything you need for medicine entry and will be more aimed at people going into nursing or the allied health professions.

This is the BMA's advice - Applying to medical school for graduates, mature and foundation students

Make sure you check with the admissions departments of the medical schools you are interested in applying to before you go ahead and commit to studying any pre-med courses. Check whether they accept the course you are planning to do and what their offer threshold is (what marks do you need to achieve to even be considered). Also, make sure you check if you need anything else alongside e.g. GCSE resits (this is very likely - ask what subjects and what grades).
(edited 3 months ago)

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