Clinical attachments
Two to eight weeks inside a working research site. Observational, structured, and genuinely useful rather than a fortnight of standing in the corner.
What you will be doing
Attachments are observational, so you will not be consenting participants or carrying out procedures. You will, though, be in the room for the working day rather than watching it from outside.
Over the placement you sit in on consent discussions, screening visits and follow-up appointments. You attend protocol review and feasibility meetings. You shadow the data team through query resolution, and you watch a site get ready for a monitoring visit.
Most people tell us afterwards that the monitoring visit was the part that changed how they think. Watching someone check source data line by line makes the reasons behind good record-keeping concrete in a way no training module manages.
You get a named supervisor, a meeting with them every week, and a written report and certificate at the end.
Observational
Before you apply
How long
Two to eight weeks, usually three days a week so you can fit it around study or work.
Where
Milton Keynes, Birmingham and Manchester. We cannot host attachments at the American sites.
Cost
There is no fee. Attachments are unpaid and we cannot cover travel.
What you need
An enhanced DBS check, occupational health clearance, and the right to study or work in the UK.
When
Rolling intakes, but apply eight to twelve weeks ahead. Supervisor capacity is the limit.
Who it suits
Medical students in clinical years, international graduates, nurses, pharmacists, allied health professionals and postgraduates in related sciences.
We can usually take six to eight people a quarter across all three sites. That is the number of supervisors we can free up without it affecting the studies, and we would rather run a small programme well than a large one badly.
Request an attachment
Tell us what you want out of it. We read every application and reply within ten working days, either way.