1999 Medicine Handbook - Introduction

Introduction

The Faculty of Medicine at Monash University admits incoming students who have shown by their scholastic performance that they are intellectually very able, that they are creative, that they are dedicated and that they are capable of the hard work that is needed to succeed in gaining entry to the course. The faculty is aware that these achievements require a high level of motivation and commitment. This drive and ambition needs to be maintained through the long and difficult course ahead. The faculty accepts that it has a responsibility to foster motivation and to expose its students to the varied range of opportunities which are provided through medicine as a profession. In addition, students themselves need to maintain their enthusiasm for their personal goals in medicine, their intellectual curiosity about the knowledge base on which the practice of medicine is founded and their desire and sense of purpose to be involved in one of the most highly regarded professions concerned with providing services essential to the health needs of the community. No matter what the endeavour in which the medical graduate eventually becomes involved, great satisfaction will be gained through the service that he or she can provide.
The Faculty of Medicine is committed to the maintenance of the very highest standards. These are guaranteed by the personal values, and the high distinction in their professional areas, of the members of staff of the faculty. They are also contributed to by the high quality of the students in the medical course. Nothing but the top standards should satisfy these students whose own aspirations should be to achieve the highest levels of performance of which they are capable. The community at large expects the best professional competency in the medical graduates who will assume responsibility for its health. Moreover, the profession itself demands that the highest standards be guaranteed by the medical schools which are responsible for the training of future members of the profession. Our staff, our students and our graduates establish the reputation of our Faculty of Medicine.
The Faculty of Medicine expects the student body to be interactive with the staff and with the faculty itself. Student opinion is valued and critical comment on elements of the course is expected and appreciated. Students have a role in the development of faculty policy, in curricular reform, in faculty innovation and in presenting the faculty and its achievements in the public arena. The government of the faculty (the faculty board) includes student representatives, and the student body itself is organised, through its own society, to deal with aspects of the social support of students as well as some of their educational aspirations.
For all students, personal objectives must include the acquisition of the ability to read published work critically and to distinguish between fact and inference. Students must be able to form opinions and attitudes which are based on fact and evidence and which can be clearly and effectively expressed and communicated. The course content and its structure are always being evaluated, updated and revised so that the primary objectives of acquisition of essential knowledge, development of appropriate skills, learning of expertise in problem solving and formation of caring and considerate attitudes will be attended to. Great emphasis is placed on communication abilities because of the essential place which these occupy in all aspects of medicine and in all human interactions. Moreover, the faculty is committed to a concept of education as a continuing activity throughout the whole of a person's life.
The approach adopted in the course assumes that all students will recognise that they have personal responsibility for their own learning. Material will be provided, instruction will be offered, and concerned and caring teachers with great skill and expertise will be available to help. However, it is the personal development of each individual student that is the objective of medical education. This involves active attention by each individual to the acquisition of appropriate knowledge, skills and attitudes and this must be understood to be the responsibility of each and every student.
Medical students will be expected progressively to develop independence and to assume authority in decision making about themselves and the patients with whom they are associated. Hence formal teaching will become less and less a feature of the Monash medical course as students progress through it and increasing emphasis will be placed on active self-directed learning for which students themselves are responsible.
Personal development is not just a matter of formal studies within the structure of the course. Medical graduates will find their satisfaction through work within a general community of which they become interacting members. Their contributions to that community, and the level of satisfaction they gain from their place within that community, will depend in large measure on their capacities for intellectual, social, sporting and cultural participation in community activities. These aspects of personal development must continue to be part of the daily lives of university students so that they will be comfortable in their later professional roles in a variety of contexts and so that, in spite of the heavy load of hard work in the course itself, they maintain their involvement in broader aspects of social life and do not become isolated bookworms whose only social contacts are with other studious medical students. In the past, medical students and medical graduates have been numbered among the most successful of the nation's athletes, musicians, sports persons, scientists, politicians, journalists, authors, poets, diplomats, welfare providers and philosophers. That should continue to be our expectation.
The Faculty of Medicine at Monash urges you to join in all the activities which are available to you and to enjoy yourselves, while assuming full personal responsibility for your own approach to learning and to the development of your personal career.
N A Saunders, Dean, Faculty of Medicine