General Practice

Please contact us at med.mdgp@uq.edu.au if you are interested in teaching in your practice.

Year 3 GP Block Placements

This placement provides all Year 3 students with an immersion in General Practice. Students attend the practice for 5 sessions per week for 6 weeks. There are 6 blocks across the year. The focus for these clinical students is understanding the scope of general practice, developing their clinical skills and formulating patient management.

Year 2 Urban LInCC placements

This placement provides an introduction to General Practice for a selected group of Year 2 students. Students attend the practice for 1 session (3-4 hours) per week for 13 or 14 weeks during either Semester 1 or Semester 2. The focus for these pre-clinical students is understanding the role of general practice, patient centred care and building basic clinical skills including history taking and physical examination. 

Year 1 Longitudinal Observership Placements for UQ MD Ochsner students

These Year 1 students, will complete their UQ MD Years 1 &2 in Brisbane and Years 3 & 4 at the UQ Ochsner Clinical School USA.  It is important for these students to gain a good understanding of the Australian health care system, and this placement provides an opportunity to showcase Australian General Practice. Students attend a practice for 1 session (3-4 hours) per week over 8 weeks. The focus for these students is understanding the Australian Health system. More details can be found in the UQ Medicine Year 1 Observership 2021 Supervisor Guide.

Year 4 Elective (Personalised Learning Course) Placements

These Year 4 students choose to do their elective in general practice. Students attend the practice for 10 sessions per week over 6 weeks. The focus for these students is immersion in a health area of interest to them and preparing them for the junior doctor years and ongoing vocational training. Further information on the Year 4 Elective can be found here. 

The General Practice placement is a six week clinical block undertaken in the third year of the medical program (or the fourth year for students studying at the Ochsner Clinical School in New Orleans). The three components of the placement are:

• Clinical placements in teaching general practices;
• Weekly small group tutorials; and
• Electronic learning materials developed and/or curated by the Mayne Academy of General Practice.

The placement is designed to support students to develop their clinical skills and to learn about -

• The discipline of general practice and general practice as a specialist career;
• Primary care and its interface with other health services; and
• A broad spectrum of clinical and ethical presentations which present and/or are managed in general practice.

For more information - 

Course Administrator:  Sandra Comer

Academic Coordinator:  Dr Hayley Thomas

This course is offered to our international student cohort and domestic students who are not able to undertake the Rural and Remote Medicine placement.

It provides a unique opportunity for medical students to understand and experience the rewards, benefits and challenges of clinical practice among population groups and/or in communities that face access and equity challenges associated with health service delivery. Such challenges can be attributed to contextual factors such as: disability, dependency on others, life-limiting illness, socioeconomic status, ethnicity and/or life circumstance. Clinical practice within such a contextual framework requires generalist knowledge, skills and attitudes. The core values underpinning care in these contexts include: the dignity of, empowerment of, respect for, and compassion towards the patient, their caregiver/s and family; advocacy on behalf of the patients, families and their communities and excellence in the provision of care and support. Whilst the context might be different, clinical practice is governed by a number of common parameters such as professional challenges, whole person care and team-based case management. An important focus of this course will be understanding the person who is the patient and how social determinants of health impact on patient health and wellbeing. A second focus will be to encourage students to be reflective and compassionate practitioners. Students will have the opportunity to engage in experiential, contemplative, reflective and narrative learning to deepen their understanding of the core values of medical practice in a tutorial context.

At the core of each student's learning experience will be a structured clinical placement where students will work closely with a clinical preceptor who will guide and support students as they provide health-care in context and continue to develop their general medical skills. A diverse range of clinical placements will be available including geriatric medicine, rehabilitation medicine, palliative care and refugee health in Australia and through Ochsner Clinical School, placements are also available in disadvantaged youth services and developing or disadvantaged communities.  

For more information -

Course Administrator:  Kim Wicks

Academic Coordinator:  Dr Michaela Kelly

Selected Year 2 medical students have the opportunity to spend a half day over a Semester based in general practices in either Semester 1 or 2.

Semester one is a 13-week placement in addition to their normal weekly MD learning activities This offers students additional patient contact to that provided by limited hospital ward time in a supportive, one-on-one teaching context. In addition, it allows students to experience continuity of patient care; to view the complexities of managing patients with multiple problems in the community; and to develop their clinical skills in history taking, physical examination, management, follow-up and prevention, across the broad range of patient presentations spanning all disciplines.

Semester two is a 14-week placement selective course MEDI7280 with assessment that contributes to MD progression. It allows students to experience continuity of patient care; to view the complexities of managing patients with multiple problems in the community; and to develop their clinical skills in history taking, physical examination, management, follow-up and prevention, across the broad range of patient presentations spanning all disciplines. With a cost of a 2-unit course.

Underpinning these programs is the recognition that much healthcare is conducted outside teaching hospitals, and that this presents an opportunity for more medical education to occur in the community setting.

Students have been enthusiastic about their experiences in the Urban LInCC programme and indicate that it has enhanced their clinical skills and their understanding of their future role as clinicians.

For more information -

Student Coordinator:  Ina Jenkins

Academic Coordinator:  Dr Annabel Chau

Master of Medicine - MMed (Skin Cancer)

Graduates will have a level of knowledge and diagnostic skill that will enable them to effectively manage a large proportion of skin cancer in their clinical work.

UQ’s postgraduate Skin Cancer medicine program is designed to give training in the biology, diagnosis and principles of management of skin cancer. It is suitable for doctors and health practitioners wishing to enhance their knowledge and skills in this area of practices. Both Graduate Certificate (1 year part-time) and Master (2 year part-time) level programs are available in this entirely external training. Further information is available here. 

For more information -

Program Convenor:  A/Prof Tony Dicker

Apply for an Academic Title - In recognition of your contribution to the General Practice placement, we have a number of opportunities available for GP teachers to apply for an Academic Title. Benefits of becoming an Academic Title Holder an be viewed here.

Director: Professor Katharine Wallis

UQGP Research is a practice-based research network (PBRN) supporting collaboration between general practitioners, GP practices and University of Queensland researchers.

The network aims to conduct research in general practice to develop the evidence-base to improve primary health care and outcomes for patients. We work together, combining complementary skills and resources.

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Research Leads: Professor Katharine Wallis (Clinician Lead), A/Professor Maria Donald (Implementation Lead)

Aim: The RELEASE study will evaluate effectiveness of the RELEASE intervention which has been designed to prompt medication review, support shared decision-making, and guide safe discontinuation of long-term antidepressants where there is no clinical indication for ongoing use.

Contact: release.study@uq.edu.au

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Research Team: Professor Katharine Wallis, Associate Professor Geoff Spurling, Dr Rory Melville and Dr Theresa Scott.

Aim: The 3-Domains screening toolkit has been developed for use in general practice during annual driver licence medical assessment in older drivers (>75 years). The toolkit assesses across the three functional domains essential for driving (sensory, motor, and cognitive) and generates a combined predictive score of likelihood the older driver would pass on-road driving assessment (%). 

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Director:  Professor Claire Jackson

The MRI-UQ Centre for Health System Reform and Integration brings together and develops the work of two Centres for Research Excellence; one on primary and secondary care integration, and the other on primary care quality, capacity building and governance.

Read More

UQ General Practice is very supportive of postgraduate students and higher degrees by research are offered on a full or part-time basis to accomodate clinical practice.

Here is what Associate Professor Geoff Spurling, one of our current PhD students has to say about his experience in UQ General Practice:

"UQ General Practice has been very generous in providing me with the resources to get my thesis off the ground. After a year in, I felt like a blind man flailing about in a room trying to find the boundaries. My UQ General Practice supervisors have helped me find the edges.

Primary care research may not have the charisma of laboratory-based research but I think this thesis has the potential to benefit Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the community where I work as a clinician and it wouldn't have been possible without UQ General Practice."

For more information regarding research conducted within our research streams, please click on the links below. 

View HDR program information:

• Master of Philosophy
• Doctor of Philosophy

Find out more about our research areas. 

Visit the Graduate School site for further details on the application process and more information on studying a higher degree by research at the University of Queensland.

If you are interested in pursuing a HDR in UQ General Practice, please email UQ General Practice who can help direct you to a potential supervisor within your area of interest.

Potential advisors and their areas of research may also be found on UQ RESEARCHERS or UQ Experts.

Emma Baillie Antimicrobial stewardship in primary care

Dr Alison Green

Dr Ben Mitchell The prevalence and determinants of immunisation in older Australians by GP registrars: a secondary analysis of ReCEnT data

Chad Reiger Examining the complexities of the community networks limiting the uptake of biosimilar medications in the Australian healthcare system   Sophie Wen

Apply for an Academic Title - In recognition of your contribution to the General Practice placement, we have a number of opportunities available for GP teachers to apply for an Academic Title. Benefits of becoming an Academic Title Holder an be viewed here.

2020/2021

2014/2015

Kim Wicks
Course Administrator, Medicine in Society
Email: med.mdmis@uq.edu.au

Address: L8, Health Sciences Building, Royal Brisbane Women's Hospital, Herston, QLD, 4029

Further information regarding the Medicine in Society block can be found here.

Email: med.ul@uq.edu.au 
Address: L8, Health Sciences Building, Royal Brisbane Women's Hospital, Herston, QLD, 4029

Further information regarding the Urban LlnCC Project can be found here.

Further information regarding the Master of Medicine - MMed (Skin Cancer) can be found here.

A/Prof Katharine Wallis
Tel: +61 7 3365 5545
Email: k.wallis@uq.edu.au
Address: L8, Health Sciences Building, Royal Brisbane Women's Hospital, Herston, QLD, 4029

Further information can be found here.