The aim of the PIP is to enable students to develop an understanding of what it means to be a doctor, and the nature of professionalism as it manifests in real life practice. Students attach to the same primary care doctor, their preceptor, for three visits over the first two years of medical school. In addition to the preceptor visits, the PIP is supported by seminars, lectures, and clinical attachments, and is complemented by parallel programmes in Medical Humanities and Ethics as well as the Clinical Interpersonal Skills Programme (CIPS). It provides a foundation for the clinical teaching and the core Family Medicine clinical clerkships which will take place in the fourth and final years of medical school.

The focus of the programme in each year are:

• PIP Year 1 – Being humanistic and ethical
• PIP Year 2 – Being an expert resource and a skilled clinician