Guidance

Our guidance explains how to meet and maintain our standards and outcomes, and looks at certain areas in more detail.

Guidance and support hubs

Two male colleagues smiling and in discussion whilst using a tablet computer
Mentoring toolkit

Mentoring describes a learning relationship between two people, where the mentor shares their knowledge, skills, and experiences to help someone else - the mentee - progress.

A medical student talking
Reflective practice

For medical students, doctors in training and doctors engaging in revalidation. This set of guides and resources shows how to reflect as part of practice.

Medical professionals in a meeting around a table
Student professionalism and fitness to practise

Resources to help medical students, physician associate students and anaesthesia associate students meet our standards. We also offer guidance for educators on providing a supporting environment.

Welcomed and valued

Written for medical schools and postgraduate educators, our successor to Gateways to the professions advises how to support disabled learners, and those with long term health conditions. It is also relevant to help organisations consider how best to support PA and AA students.

Our full list of medical education guidance

A group of medical students attending a lecture
Achieving good medical practice: guidance for medical students
Medical students must demonstrate a high standard of behaviour at all times: justifying the trust placed in them as future members of the profession. This guidance outlines the standards expected of medcal students – both inside and outside their course or placement – and shows how the principles and values of Good medical practice apply to medical students.
A group of students sat with laptops
Achieving good medical practice: guidance for PA and AA students
Physician associate (PA) or anaesthesia associate (AA) students must demonstrate a high standard of behaviour at all times, which justifies the trust placed in them as future members of these professions. This guidance outlines the standards expected of PA and AA students – both inside and outside their course or placement – and shows how the principles and values of Good medical practice apply to PA and AA students.
A female doctor reviewing paperwork
Continuing professional development (CPD)
Doctors must keep their knowledge and skills up to date throughout their working life and maintain and improve their performance. Continuing professional development is a key way to meet these professional standards. This guidance is for doctors, but it may also be of use to employers, doctors’ representatives, patients and the public.
A credentialing icon featuring a rosette and a star
Credentialing
We have introduced a new process called credentialing to recognise doctors’ capabilities in three discrete areas of practice: mechanical thrombectomy; rural and remote medicine; and pain medicine. We do not plan to take forward any more GMC credentials in the foreseeable future but will continue to monitor, evaluate and learn from the early adopter credentials we have approved.
Designing and maintaining postgraduate assessment programmes
Designing and maintaining postgraduate assessment programmes
This guidance is supplementary to our postgraduate medical curriculum standards, Excellence by design, and gives advice for those making decisions about how programmes of assessment are designed and maintained.
Three female doctors reviewing notes while walking down a corridor
Completing equality impact assessments: guidance for royal colleges and faculties
This guidance is supplementary to our postgraduate medical curriculum standards, Excellence by design, and gives advice on equality, diversity and inclusion issues in relation to curricula and assessments.
An icon of hands holding a tablet representing guidance
Guide to evaluating interventions
Are your interventions to address differential attainment working? This guide contains resources that will help you evaluate the measure you're taking.
Designing and maintaining postgraduate assessment programmes
Generic professional capabilities guidance on implementation
This guidance is intended to help colleges and faculties to integrate the Generic professional capabilities framework into their specialty curricula and assessment processes. The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges worked with us to produce this guidance.
An icon of hands holding a tablet representing guidance
National professional examinations
To grant a certificate of completion of training, we need to be confident that the doctor has demonstrated the competencies set out in the specialty curriculum through assessments including national professional examinations.
An icon of hands holding a tablet representing guidance
Out of programme doctors in training
A doctor in training that takes time out of their approved programme is said to be out of programme. Find guidance here for doctors in training, postgraduate deans and others dealing with out of programme matters.
Medical professionals in a meeting around a table
Professional behaviour and fitness to practise
This guidance is aimed at medical school and university staff, and placement provider organisations who identify, manage and support students whose professionalism or fitness to practise is a cause for concern.
An icon of hands holding a tablet representing guidance
Programme and site approvals
Deaneries and local offices must check that their training locations meet the standards set out in Promoting Excellence. You can find the current list of approved programmes and sites here.
Students learning resuscitation techniques
Promoting excellence equality and diversity considerations
This guide explains our expectations of equality and diversity considerations, so organisations can design and provide education and training that meets the standards set out in Promoting excellence.
Reflective practice
The reflective practitioner
This guide supports medical students, doctors in training and doctors engaging in revalidation on how to reflect as part of their practice.
Reflective practice
The reflective practitioner - supplementary guidance for medical students
Working with the Medical Schools Council, we have produced supplementary guidance and a dedicated introduction to reflective practice designed for medical students.
An icon of hands holding a tablet representing guidance
Supporting medical students with mental health conditions
This guidance is designed to help medical schools support students who have mental health conditions. It gives examples of good practice and advice for medical schools on how to provide the best possible help to students.
An icon featuring shapes on a scale
Tackling differential attainment
Differential attainment is what we call the gap between attainment levels of different groups of doctors. It's an indicator that training and medical education may not be fair. Find out more about the work we are doing about this.
Two medical professionals consulting with a patient in a hospital bed
Undergraduate clinical placements
Here you’ll find our guidance for educators and medical student guide. The guidance is for medical schools and placement providers. It will support them to plan and deliver undergraduate clinical placements that meet our standards. The student guide highlights what student should expect from their placements, what is expected of them, and how to raise concerns.
An icon of hands holding a tablet representing guidance
Unexpected events affecting the delivery of postgraduate medical exams
This guidance is for organisations responsible for developing and delivering postgraduate medical exams that are required for the award of a certificate of completion of training (CCT). It sets out our expectations and the actions that should be taken when there are exceptional issues in the delivery of those exams.
A medical student in a wheelchair studying at a computer
Welcomed and valued
Written for medical schools and postgraduate educators, our successor to Gateways to the professions advises how to support disabled learners, and those with long term health conditions. It is also relevant to help organisations consider how best to support PA and AA students.

Position statements

Our collection of position statements look at specific areas where we have been asked to provide further clarity or information.
Read our position statements

Our projects

Medicine never stops improving, meaning education and training must keep pace. Our projects cover anything which may impact on now or in the future.
View our projects


Our professional standards

The guidance listed on this page is our guidance for medical students and doctors in training. You can find our professional standards for practising doctors in the professional standards section.

Visit the professional standards section