General PPD aims are:

• To stimulate and maintain enthusiasm for clinical medicine

• To provide experience of patient contact

• To practice history taking, clinical examination and clinical procedures

• To learn and apply basic principles of emergency care

• To develop the ability to evaluate ethical and legal issues in patient care

• To encourage the development of professional attitudes towards patients and colleagues

• To develop skills of self-evaluation and appraisal leading to reflective medical practice

• To learn to communicate with patients of different ages and from diverse social and ethnic backgrounds with different diseases, capacity and prognoses

• To learn to analyse factors influencing the relationship between doctor and patient - particularly culture, religion, age, gender and sexuality

• To encourage understanding of the roles of the different health professionals involved in patient care and develop team working skills

• To develop a willingness to contribute to teaching, training, appraising and assessing

• To gain an understanding of health promotion issues in relation to yourselves, the individual and the community