The use as a learning resource of the community in which the medical school is situated: the Medical School, Southampton.

Southampton University Medical School was established in 1971 and now takes 130 students each year for the 5-year course, and fifteen students for the premedical year. The school uses facilities within the whole Wessex region, population 2.5 million, for teaching. During the first year of the course, community-based learning is a feature of the 'Man, Medicine and Society' course and of Early Medical Contact (EMC). Each student has four half-day EMC visits to patients in their homes and these visits are followed by discussion with medical staff. Sociology, or the social context of health care, together with an epidemiology course are the main contacts with the community in the second year. In the third year, all students visit a general practice surgery for half a day per week for 40 weeks; this enables them to appreciate the natural history of common conditions in primary care and their management. There is also a course in occupational medicine in the third year. At the beginning of the fourth year, many students spend an elective in an underdeveloped country, but much of the year is concerned with a study in depth, in some cases involving the community. The fifth year of the course is a major clinical year, often spent in regional hospitals away from Southampton. Three weeks are spent in general practice somewhere in the Wessex region.