Clinical Academies
After two years of pre-clinical training at the University of Bristol, our medical students go on to placements at Clinical Academies across the South West region.
Our medical students go on placements at Clinical Academies across the South West region. They also spend time in a wide variety of primary care practices and community care placements in Bristol and the surrounding areas.
Representing a range of healthcare settings, from smaller rural hospitals to large city-based ones, training at the academies brings you into contact with a diverse body of patients and different medical teams and offers you real-life training and experience in a wide range of NHS environments across the South West of England.
Our Clinical Academies are teaching and learning facilities based within NHS Trusts that function as University of Bristol campuses located outside of the main University precinct. Each Academy has the resources you would expect on University campus, including lecture and seminar rooms, library and IT facilities, and a student common room. Each clinical Academy is led by an Academy Medical Dean who has responsibility for academic leadership and for students' academic supervision and pastoral care. Postgraduate medical trainees, nurses and other allied medical professionals share these resources and facilities with our students, making learning a truly multi-professional experience.
Over the course of your medical training, you will rotate through and spend time in most of our clinical Academies and see a wide variety of patients and care within our network. You will gain in-depth clinical experience from different NHS trusts, preparing you for life as a junior doctor and beyond.
Our academies
The Royal United Hospital Bath NHS Foundation Trust provides acute treatment and care for a catchment population of around 500,000 people in Bath, and the surrounding towns and villages in North East Somerset and Western Wiltshire.
The Trust provides 732 beds and a comprehensive range of acute services including medicine and surgery, services for women and children, accident and emergency services, and diagnostic and clinical support services. Located 14 miles from Bristol and approximately 1.5 miles from Bath city centre, the Academy can take over 100 students at any one time. You will live on the Trust site for your placement.
Gloucestershire is the largest Academy outside of Bristol and consists of two sites, Gloucester and Cheltenham, including an Education Centre, library, and modern teaching and seminar rooms.
North Bristol is the largest NHS Trust in the South West and is sited at Southmead Hospital.
The Academy is based in the Learning and Research building which is a purpose-built facility offering well equipped teaching rooms, simulation suites, a library and student common room and can take up to 200 students from Years 2-5 at any one time.
Clinical teaching will take place in the new £430 million, 800 bed hospital.
Mr Jonathan Rees and Dr Julie Dovey -
South Bristol Academy Deans
The South Bristol Academy provides clinical teaching and learning opportunities at a number of hospitals, namely the Bristol Royal Infirmary (BRI), including the Bristol Heart Institute, Bristol Royal Hospital for Children, Bristol Haematology and Oncology Centre, Bristol Eye Hospital and St Michael's Hospital.
You will also be taught at the University Hospitals Bristol and Weston Education & Research Centre. These facilities and the newly-refurbished Academy space in Dolphin House are within walking distance of the main University precinct.
The Bristol Royal Infirmary provides a full range of hospital services for the population of south Bristol, together with tertiary services for cardio-thoracic, paediatric and oncology patients for the South West.
The North Somerset Academy is based on the site of Weston General Hospital, in Weston-Super-Mare. It is a small and friendly District hospital in a seaside town. You will be able to take advantage of the £2million Academy building, which has a well-equipped, light and airy library to support you with your studies 24 hours a day, as well as skills rooms and other teaching rooms. A small, inclusive and accessible Academy and we provide a contrasting experience to the larger Academies.
Free accommodation is well appointed and extremely close to the Hospital and Academy. All students have the opportunity to request accommodation and is guaranteed if you don’t have accommodation in Bristol.
The Somerset Academy is based on two sites - Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton and Yeovil District Hospital.
There are plenty of opportunities for teaching and clinical experience in both acute and community medicine at these busy district general hospitals.
Each year at Swindon we teach over 200 University of Bristol students in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th years of their undergraduate course.
The Academy provides a formal setting for learning and teaching for a wide range of health care professionals as well as students from other medical schools.
The Great Western Hospital is an excellent place to train as a medical student and we are very proud of the educational programme we offer here.
It is a new, purpose built hospital with state of the art facilities for patients and staff.