The Degree Course consists of 360 credits, articulated in 6 course years; at least 60 credits will be related to educational activities aiming at the acquisition of specific professional skills.
The course consists of 12 semesters and 36 integrated courses; credits are assigned to individual subjects by the Council of the Degree Course in accordance with the table of mandatory educational activities. Each credit corresponds to 25 hours, of which 8 hours of frontal teaching, or 12 hours of laboratory and guided practice, or 20 hours of guided study within the educational facility or in the region. Each professionalising credit corresponds to 25 hours studenta'- a'a's work, of which 20 are dedicated to professionalising activities in small groups under the guidance of a professor, and 5 to the individual reworking of learned activities.
The Council of the Degree Course defines in the a'- a'a'Course outlinea'- a'a' and in the Studenta'- a'a's guide, the articulation of integrated courses in semesters, with the relevant credits, the a'- a'a'core curriculuma'- a'a' and the learning objectives (including the ones related to the credits of professionalising activities) of each integrated course, as well as the required tests and examinations. These latter should be minor or equal to 36, and take place during the interruptions of frontal courses. Examinations, if passed, entitle to the acquisition of the relevant credits.
Specific mission of the one cycle degree course
The mission of this Degree Course is identified with the formation of a medical professional with a biomedical-psycho-social culture, who owns a multi-disciplinary and integrated vision of health and illness issues, with an education oriented towards the community and the region and mostly to the prevention of disease and to health promotion, with a humanistic culture with respect to aspects of medical interest; such a specific mission responds more adequately to the new health care needs being not only centered on the disease, but especially on sick man, considered in its entirety of soma and psyche and inserted in the social context.
Such medical education is also seen as the first segment of a lifelong education; in this respect the knowledge students should acquire in this phase has been calibrated, giving due importance to self-learning and to experience not only in clinical wards but also in the region, to epidemiology, and to the development of clinical reasoning and of culture of prevention.
Outstanding features of the doctors to be trained include:
1) Good ability to human contact (communication skills);
2) Ability to self-learning and self-assessment (continuing education);
3) Ability to analyze and solve problems associated with medical practice together with good clinical practice based on scientific evidence (evidence based medicine);
4) habit to the constant updating of knowledge and skills, and command of the methodological and cultural bases for autonomous acquisition and critical assessment of new competences and skills (continuing professional development);
5) Good practice of interdisciplinary and interprofessional work(Interprofessional education);
6) In-depth knowledge of the fundamentals necessary for a correct methodological approach to scientific research in the medical field, together with the autonomy in using information technology.
The specific educational plan and teaching method:
The adopted educational methodology provides the horizontal and vertical integration of knowledge, a teaching method based upon sound cultural and methodological bases acquired through the study of pre-clinical subjects, and subsequently focused on the problem solving capability (problem oriented learning), the early contact with patients, the acquisition of good clinical skills together with human contact skills
The course provides an integrated, flexible and modifiable educational programme, which is a real experimentation laboratory, aiming at facilitating studenta'- a'a's capability of acquiring knowledge in an integrated rather than fragmented way, and to maintain this knowledge in the short- and long-term. The student is considered the central actor of the educational process, in planning as well as in improving the whole curriculum, aiming at increasing his/her autonomy.
Sound basic clinic knowledge is provided through the organisation of certified internships, based upon tutorial education and upon the deep understanding of the medical-scientific method and human sciences.
A true professional competence achieved through a long tradition in the relation with the patient, will be promoted from the first year of the course and integrated with basic and clinical sciences, throughout the course, thanks to the extensive use of tutorial activities.
The educational project offers the right integration balance between:
1) basic sciences at large, including evolutionary biology and biological complexity aimed at understanding the structure and function of the human body in normal conditions as well as for the maintenance of health conditions;
2) solid clinical and methodological medical practice, through the extensive use of tutorial education, capable of transforming the theoretical knowledge in personal experience and of building onea'- a'a's own scale of values and interests.
3) Human sciences, seen as a useful background to reach the awareness of being a doctor.
Many of the essential content of the educational projects already activated the academic year 1999-2000, anticipate and integrate the European specifications for global standards in medical education of the World Federation of Medical Education in the field of basic and quality international standards in the biomedical education (WFME Office, University of Copenhagen, 2007).
The peculiar features of the Degree in Medicine and Surgery aim at achieving the specific objectives are:
1) the planning of objectives, programs and education is multidisciplinary, in accordance to Law provisions.
2) The teaching method is interactive and multidisciplinary, through the daily integration of basic sciences and clinical disciplines and an early clinical involvement of students, who are immediately directed to the correct approach to the patient. The basic sciences and clinical setting issues are then discussed during the course (total integration model), although in different proportions, but with a highly integrated and unified vision, including the use of differentiated teaching.
3) The selection of the core courses specific objectives is primarily based on the relevance of each objective in the context of human biology, and on the propaedeutic character with respect to current or predictable clinical issues, with particular attention to scientific methodology.
4) The choice of specific objectives of core courses is based primarily on the epidemiological prevalence, the urgency of intervention, the possibility of intervention, the severity and evidence based education.
Particular attention is paid to internships in clinical wards as well as territorial facilities of the National Healthcare System and to the relationship with the patient, even from a psychological viewpoint.
5) The teaching process uses modern teaching aids, consisting of tutorial system, clinical triggers, problem-oriented learning, experiential learning , problem solving, decision-making and of seminars and conferences.
6) There is a large use of faculty tutors who contribute to the educational process through teaching (area tutors) and studentsa'- a'a' support (personal tutors).
7) Particular emphasis is given to the acquisition of practical skills, through:
a) the involvement in a basic research project during the first three course years;
b) the learning of semiotic bases of bedside and laboratory clinical science during the middle term (professionalizing internship as a guided activity with certification of the acquired skill level)
c) internship in university wards and clinics (clinical clerkship- with the supervisora'- a'a's certification of the skills acquired between the IV and the VI year) as well as in territorial clinics such as general practitioners ones, for the completion of clinical internship in the last course years and the preparation of the degree dissertation.
d) participation in research programs during the internship for the preparation of the dissertation.
8) Special attention is given to learning the English Language.
9) Special attention is given to computer and multimedia methodologies through e-learning, distance learning and telemedicine, as well as to the correct use of bibliographic sources.
10) Establishment of an integrated course in a'- a'a'Clinical Methodology-Human Sciencesa'- a'a' This course will accompany students during the whole educational programme. Everyone knows the importance of method in medicine, with respect to the knowledge of medical methodology and of its rules, in accordance with the principles of evidence based medicine, as well as to the clinical methodology applied to individual patients. Students will be oriented, since the beginning of the degree course, toward human sciences, which will accompany them in their scientific-professional educational process.
This training will enable students to refine their skills and to acquire the adequate and innovative tools for clinical reasoning. This is the response to the growing need for reconciling doctors to patients, in contrast with the current, purely technological, medical practice.
In this context, the so-called narrative medicine will be used together with grids, and with technique of role-play as important tools in the acquisition of true emotional and professional competences.
Student assessment is done through mid-term tests (self-assessment tests and interviews), written reports on assigned topics, and through the evaluation of the overall profile. Examinations may be not only traditional written or oral tests, but also in a sequence of items useful to verify the acquired knowledge, such as multiple-choice or short written answers test about clinical problems or interdisciplinary, followed by tests assessing the acquired clinical skills, such as the 'Objective Structured Clinical examination (shows how) or the mini-clinical Evaluation Exercise, the Direct Observation of Procedural skills and the use of Portfolio (does). For integrated courses, formal assessments will be based on written tests may be followed by oral evidence. In accordance with the experimentation on a national scale, the Maastricht Progress Test type in student assessment may be used to evaluate the effective competence level.