To achieve its educational objectives, the one-cycle course entails 360 credits in total, distributed in the six course years, of which at least 60 should be acquired in educational activities aiming at the maturation of specific skills.
The course is divided in 12 semesters and 36 integrated courses, awarded with specific credits established by the Board of the Faculty in accordance with the provisions in the table of necessary educational activities. Each credits corresponds to 25 hours, of which normally: 8 hours of lectures or 12 hours of laboratory or tutorial, or 20 hours of supervised study within the educational and regional facilities in the various types specified in the Educational Regulations.
Each professionalizing credit corresponds to 25 hours of student work, including 20 hours of professionalizing work under the guidance of a professor in small groups within the educational and territorial facilities and 5 hours of individual reworking activities.
The Board of the Faculty defined in the "Course outline" and in the Student's guide the distribution of integrated courses in semesters, the relevant credits, the "Core curriculum" as well as the learning objectives (including those related to professionalizing activities) of each integrated course, and the type of examination. Examinations, whose number should not exceed 36, are planned by the relevant Board in the periods of stop of teaching classes. The passing of examination entitles to the acquisition of the relevant credits.
Specific mission of the one-cycle Degree Course
The specific mission of the one-cycle Degree Course is training a medical professional with a biomedical-psycho-social culture, possessing a multidisciplinary and integrated vision of health and disease, with an education oriented to the community, the region and above all to the prevention of disease and promotion of health, and with a humanistic culture in its implications of medical interest; this specific mission responds more adequately to the new demands of health care and since it is not only centered on the disease, but also on patients, considered as a whole of soma and psyche and inserted in a social context.
Such a medical training is considered as the first part of a lifelong educational path, therefore the
knowledge that students must acquire at this stage has been calibrated , giving due importance to self-learning, to experiences not only in clinical wards but also in the territory, to epidemiology, aiming at the development of clinical reasoning and culture of prevention.
Such trained medical doctors will possess the following qualifying traits:
1) Good ability to human contact (communication skills);
2) Ability to self-learning and self-assessment (continuing education);
3) Ability to autonomously analyze and solve problems related to medical practice along with a good clinical practice based on scientific evidence (evidence based medicine);
4) Use to constant updating of knowledge and skills, and possession of adequate methodological and cultural bases for independent acquisition and critical assessment of new knowledge and skills (continuing professional development);
5) Good practice of interdisciplinary and interprofessional work (Interprofessional education);
6) In depth knowledge of the methodological foundations necessary for a correct approach to scientific research in the medical field, together with the autonomous use of information technologies.
The specific educational plan and the teaching method
The key features of the chosen teaching methodology, useful to achieve the expected qualification, include the horizontal and vertical integration of competences, a teaching methodology based upon sound cultural and methodological bases obtained through the study of pre-clinical subjects, and later on mostly based on problem oriented learning, on the early contact with the patient, a good acquisition of clinical skill together with a good acquisition of the ability to human contact..
Therefore It has been planned a highly integrated, flexible and modifiable, educational organization, a true laboratory of experimentation, with the intention of promoting students' ability to acquire knowledge in an integrated rather than a piecemeal way, and to keep this knowledge alive not only in the short term, but also in the longer term. The student is considered the pivot of the educational process, both in course design and in the improvement of the entire educational curriculum in order to enhance his/her autonomy of initiative.
Sound clinical competences are also ensured to students through the organisation of certified professional practice periods, based on tutorial teaching, together with a deep understanding of the scientific method and of soft sciences. True professional competence, achieved through a long tradition in contact with the patient, is promoted from the first course year and integrated with core and clinical sciences, throughout the curriculum through a wide use of tutorial activities.
The educational project of the Degree Course provides the right integration balance among: 1) core sciences, which should be broad and include the knowledge of evolutionary biology and biological complexity aimed at understanding the structure and function of the human organism under normal conditions for the preservation of health, 2) clinical medical practice and methodology, which must be particularly strong, through the extensive use of tutorial teaching , transforming the theoretical knowledge in personal experience and building one's own scale of values and interests, and 3) social sciences, which should be a useful experience to reach the awareness of being a medical doctor.
Many fundamental issues of our educational plan, which has been activated in academic year 1999-2000, anticipate and integrate the for global standards in medical education of the World Federation on Medical Education with respect to basic international standards and of quality in the field of biomedical education (WFME Office, University of Copenhagen, 2007).
The modt important features of the Degree Course in medicine, aiming at the achievement of specific objectives are:
1) Under the provisions of the existing legislation, the planning of objectives, programs, and education is multidisciplinary.
2) The teaching method is interactive and multidisciplinary , with the constant integration of basic sciences and clinical disciplines and an early clinical involvement of students, who are immediately directed to a correct approach to the patient. Issues related to basic sciences, as well as issues related to the clinical area are covered during the course (total integration model), although in different proportions, with a coherent and highly integrated vision, including diversified teaching.
3) The choice of the specific objectives of core courses is done based on the importance of each objective in the context of human biology, and on the propaedeutic character with respect to current or foreseeable clinical issues, with particular attention to scientific methodology.
4) The choice of the specific objectives of the class-specific courses is done primarily on the basis of epidemiological prevalence, urgency of intervention, possibility of intervention, severity and on the exemplary character of teaching. It is also provided the frequency in the clinical wards of the NHS and of regional clinics as well as the promotion of the relationship with the patient, even from a psychological viewpoint.
5) The teaching process uses modern teaching tools, consisting of tutorial system, clinical trigger, problem-oriented learning, experiential learning, problem solving, decision making and of a large use of seminars and conferences.
6) There is a wide use of faculty mentors cooperating in the educational process with the offices of teaching (area tutor) and support services (personal tutors) to students.
7) Particular attention is given to the acquisition of practical skills, through:
a) the involvement in the planning of a research in the first three course years
b) the learning of semiological bases of clinical sciences at the bedside and in laboratories in the middle period (vocational training activities organized as guided tutorial activity with skill level certification)
c) attendance in university clinical wards and clinics (clinical clerkship - with certification, by the tutor, of the skills reached from the fourth to sixth year of the course), as well as of territorial clinics like those of General Practitioners, for the completion of clinical training in the last course years, and the internship period for the preparation of the thesis,
d) participation in research programs in the period of internship for the preparation of the thesis.
8) Special attention is given to learning the English Language.
9) Particular attention is given to the ICT and multimedia methodologies, also through e-learning, distance learning and telemedicine, and to the correct use of bibliographical sources.
10) Institution of an integrated course of Clinical Methodology -Social Sciences. This course accompanies students for the whole educational programme. Everybody knows the importance of the method in medicine, with respect to the knowledge of medical methodology and its rules according to the principles of evidence-based medicine, as well as to the clinical methodology applied to the individual patient. The course will provide students with training in social sciences, accompanying them in their scientific-professional training. This training will enable them to refine their skills and to acquire the correct and innovative clinical reasoning tools. In this way the course responds to the growing need for a reconciliation of the doctor to the sick man, who are always more distant, due to a purely technological medical practice. In this context, we will also use the so-called narrative medicine, together with reflection grids, and role-playing as important tools for acquiring a true professional and emotional competence (role-playing is used by Psychologists and by Psychiatrists in "Methodology" and "Psychiatry" courses).
11) Student assessment is also carried out through ongoing tests (self-assessment tests and interviews), written reports on assigned topics, and through the evaluation of the overall profile developed on the basis of predefined criteria. The exams can not only be traditional oral or written ones, but also a sequence of items useful to assess acquired knowledge(knows and knows how) such as multiple-choice tests or short written answer tests, on interdisciplinary problem or case studies, followed by tests useful to assess the acquired clinical skills, such as the 'Objective Structured clinical examination (shows how) or like the mini-Clinical Evaluation Exercise, the Direct Observation of Procedural skills and the use of Portfolio (does). For integrated courses, formal evaluation might be based on written test, possibly followed by oral evidence. In accordance with the national experimentation, the Maastricht Progress Test in the assessment of students, to evaluate the effective acquired competence.
