The Oxford Transplant Centre is committed to training and education at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. Throughout the calendar year a number of 4th year and 6th year medical students undertake a surgical placement on the transplant unit. This gives them the opportunity to be exposed not just to transplantation but to clinical surgery. They are closely supervised and mentored as they undertake clinical examination of patients and are taught many aspects of both surgery and transplantation through organised tutorials and bed side teaching.

In addition to the undergraduate clinical students from the Oxford Medical School, the transplant centre regularly has visiting students from overseas medical schools undertake a clinical elective placement. These visiting students are usually in their final year of training and wish to experience health care in another country and culture. The Oxford Transplant Centre is committed to accommodating such students and providing them with teaching and exposure to not just transplantation but the NHS.

We have a high turn-over of postgraduate doctors in training who spend anything from 3 months to a year on placement within the transplant centre. They contribute to the care of all patients in both the inpatient and outpatient setting as well as in the operating theatres. The trainees are closely supervised and educated around specific aspects of transplantation and access for dialysis. As a consequence of committed teaching and training a number of trainees have declared a career interest in transplantation.

In the past year the education and training programme has evolved to provide specialist training opportunities for overseas doctors who are at the end of their training and are ready to become consultants. We have enabled doctors from around the world to experience transplantation at Oxford as well as the NHS.

The longer term vision is to develop transplant education and training programmes that incorporate nephrology trainees and allied health professionals by generating a Centre of Excellence for Teaching and Learning thereby generating the next generation of renal failure and transplant specialists.