There are 10,000 undergraduate medical student places filled in the UK yearly (Bolton, 2024), the practical education of which is typically assigned to consultants, general practitioners and other physicians. This can be difficult, as these professions are often already under pressure from long patient lists, attending emergency situations, completing appropriate charting and other patient care responsibilities. This study explores facilitating undergrad learning with other high quality options, such as postgraduate nurses that have experience in the consultant’s department.

A convenience sample of 3rd year medical students was utilised to obtain feedback to an anonymised survey regarding knowledge attainment. These surveys follow 3rd year UK medical students’ attendance at 1 hour in-person modules directed by a postgrad Endoscopy nurse. The topics of this module were cirrhosis, oesophageal varices, and Variceal Band Ligation endoscopic treatment and included up to 10 medical students each. These classes occurred for 28 weeks (September 2024 to May 2025) and included a hands on introduction to the gastroscope and the mechanics of variceal band ligation.

Out of 240 potential students, 110 responded to the anonymised link that was provided via email upon their completion of the training. Of these, 6 were removed for only responding to demographic questions, leaving 104 students who completed the survey in its entirety (43% response rate). 72% of respondents chose ‘Strongly Agree’ and 26% ‘Somewhat Agree’ (total: 98%) that the lecture was useful; 69% chose ‘strongly agree’ and 27% ‘somewhat agree’ (total: 96%) in response to the statement ‘I feel more confident that before the class in my knowledge on oesophageal varices’; and 78% chose ‘strongly agree’ and 21% chose ‘somewhat agree’ with the statement ‘I feel more confident than before the class on the role of endoscopy in cirrhosis patients’.

The education of the next generation of medical professionals can be problematic for physicians who are already under strain. One of the tools that could be considered going forward to address these barriers, is the utilisation of RNs with postgraduate degrees as ad-hoc educators. This case study demonstrates that when done successfully, undergraduate medical students can access knowledge of diseases and procedures without requiring physicians to be further overburdened. Educating the next generation of medical providers can emerge from numerous sources and it may be time we look to those to ensure that there are enough physicians to meet the medical demand that the future requires.