Medical curriculum

• General information
  • Table 1.1
• Rural practice
• Regulations

General information

The course leading to the degrees of Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MB BS) is of six years duration. The degrees may be awarded at either pass or honours standard.
Students spend the majority of the first three years on the Clayton campus and follow the university pattern in relation to duration of semesters and examinations. The last three years of the course will be spent in teaching hospitals in the Inner and Eastern, Southern and Peninsula Health Care Networks. The Alfred Health Care Group, Monash Medical Centre, Box Hill Hospital, Dandenong Hospital and Frankston Hospital are major teaching venues. Teaching also takes place in other hospitals and centres which provide opportunities for clinical teaching. The length of the teaching year in the last three years of the course will be considerably longer than in the first three years.
The medical curriculum is designed as two overlapping wedges. The first wedge, basic medical sciences, has its blunt end at the beginning of the course and its point in the later years, and the second wedge, clinical studies, has its sharp end early in the course and its blunt end at graduation. The overlapping wedge design allows the basic medical sciences to be taught in the context of their relevance to patient care early in the course. Later in the course the tail of the basic science wedge reinforces clinical teaching with a strong scientific foundation.
The early years in the curriculum integrate teaching between various disciplines and emphasise the development of suitable communication and observation skills. There are no separate and identifiable courses in physics and chemistry in first-year medicine as relevant issues from these disciplines are taught within the biological framework where they are most applicable.
Anatomy (structure) and physiology (function) of the organ systems (eg the cardiovascular system and the digestive system) are integrated rather than taught and examined as separate courses in anatomy and physiology. Other aspects of the basic medical sciences are integrated into a series of units on the principles of cellular and molecular biology, rather than being taught as separate subjects.
Course options are available in years one and three with year two undertaking a rural medicine attachment. Whilst all students will still be required to reach a level of basic competence in all aspects of the course, the options will allow students to study selected areas in greater depth than was previously possible. In addition to their direct vocational significance (ie the opportunity to gain extra knowledge in a field related to one's proposed postgraduate career) the options will be of general educational advantage because they will provide an opportunity for more independent, self-directed learning. Some options are of an interdisciplinary nature, and all offer an opportunity to pursue and broaden knowledge and skills in selected areas of interest.

Table 1.1

Rural practice

The faculty is committed to providing significant teaching in rural medicine.
Students participate in a one week rural medicine attachment in second year with opportunities to undertake additional rural studies in the option program of years one and three.
In the later years of the course a minimum of seven weeks will be spent in medical specialties and general practice placement in a rural area. Additionally students are encouraged to join the faculty's Rural Practice Association.

Regulations

Students should note that degree regulations are the formal prescription of the requirements to complete a degree and it is the student's responsibility to ensure that the requirements are understood.

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