Practical procedures
Choose a suitable procedure and agree the supervision before you start.
Clinical learning outcomes: Awaiting named clinical review.
What you should learn
- Prepare safely for an appropriate procedure and recognise when to stop.
- Use feedback to improve technique, documentation and aftercare.
Recognise and explain
- Graduate supervision expectations differ by procedure. Check the current GMC supplement and your school’s rules.
- Blood transfusion has a specific requirement for further training before direct supervision; do not treat it like an ordinary simulation-only task.
On your placement
Agree the activity and supervision with the clinical team. For patient-facing learning, seek permission and respect the patient’s comfort and care needs.
- Choose a procedure your supervisor considers suitable for your preparation and the patient.
- Review the local checklist, equipment, consent, infection prevention and aftercare.
- Practise in simulation if appropriate, then agree the level of patient supervision.
- Document the procedure in the approved way and ask the supervisor to review the record and follow-up.
Observe and understand
- Advanced airway management, sedation and invasive emergency procedures can be observed when appropriate; observation is not clearance to perform them.
Observation does not establish competence to perform these activities.
Start here
MLA: preparing for a procedure
Review preparation, consent, safe performance, aftercare and documentation.
MLA: graduate practical-skills expectations
Check the graduate practical-skills table, then agree your supervision with the placement team.
Current guidance
GMC practical skills and procedures
Check the task-specific graduate expectation and discuss your current supervision with the placement team.
GMC guidance on the quality of clinical placements
Use the placement guidance to agree learning opportunities, supervision and feedback with your team.
On your next shift
Record the feedback and agreed next learning step; do not record patient identifiers in a personal learning log.
How this relates to GMC graduate outcomes and the MLA
These are St Emlyn’s learning connections, not a claim that this page covers every national requirement.
Clinical and professional capabilities: Clinical assessment; Communication; Recognising limits and seeking help.
Practical skills: Practical procedures.
Suggested placement activities informed by the GMC framework. No new procedure-specific supervision level is assigned here.
Explore the student placement programme
Student practice and graduate expectations
About this resource and its review
A St Emlyn’s guide to learning Emergency Medicine during undergraduate placements. It is not an official medical-school or GMC curriculum. Your medical school’s curriculum and assessment requirements take precedence.
National foundations: GMC Outcomes for Graduates, the practical-skills supplement and the MLA content map applying from September 2026.
Framework checked: 8 October 2026. This is a source check, not clinical sign-off.
Clinical learning outcomes: awaiting named clinical review.
The four learning routes are St Emlyn’s groupings. The six interconnected MLA domains remain part of the official content map.