RESEARCH ARTICLE

Over recent years, the early introduction of clinical skills teaching, and the integration of patient-focused clinical and basic sciences, has gained greater import-ance in undergraduate medical education. At Durham University, first and second year medical students practice clinical skills on each other under direct super-vision from tutors, and receive immediate feedback on their performance during the clinical skills training ses-sions. They are introduced to a range of generic clinical skills, such as communication, clinical examination, and practical procedures, all of which are assessed dur-ing the summative Objective Structured Clinical Exami-nations (OSCEs). Students are trained so that they ca