Caution
Copyright © Monash University 1996
ISBN 1037-0919
Authorised by Academic Registrar, April 1996
The undergraduate course in medicine is therefore directed towards the personal development of the individual student and to the acquisition and utilisation of appropriate knowledge, skills and attitudes for the benefit of individual patients and society. The medical student will:
(a) acquire a basic medical knowledge and understanding of sciences and scientific method; structure, function, normal growth and disorders focusing on those disorders which are preventable, curable, common or produce short- and long-term discomfort and disability; aetiology, history and prognosis of mental and physical ailments; pregnancy and childbirth; prevention and therapy; human relationships and interactions between doctor and patient and between people and their environment; organisation and provision of health care; health promotion; and ethical standards and legal responsibilities;
(b) develop professional skills to identify and manage illness in patients; practise simple clinical procedures; recognise common medical emergencies; communicate with patients and relatives; communicate and work effectively with co-workers as part of a health team; evaluate assumptions and arguments critically; make cost-effective use of tests available; make cost-effective use of therapeutic options; counsel patients including health promotion, prevention, formulating treatment plans and negotiating informed consent; and use time and resources efficiently;
(c) develop appropriate attitudes and behaviour in relation to a scientific and humanitarian approach to patients; self-education and continuing medical education; critical evaluation of knowledge and practice; empathy for patients; appreciation of self-limitations; relationships with co-workers; and application of ethical codes of practice.
Education in the faculty will enable students to acquire balanced relevant knowledge of the sciences upon which medicine depends and an understanding of the scientific method, and it will enable them to achieve a comprehensive understanding of people in health and in sickness and an intimate acquaintance with their physical and social environment. The undergraduate student will be exposed to a broad range of experiences located in a variety of hospitals and in suburban and rural communities to assist in the integration of appropriate knowledge, skills and attitudes.
The faculty through its departments will encourage the development of the highest standards of scholarship in staff and ensure that departments also provide a milieu in which high levels of scholarship can be achieved by students. The faculty will have a commitment and responsibility to health care standards and the competence of health care providers. Teaching responsibilities may encompass the continuum of undergraduate, vocational, postgraduate and continuing medical education and will provide an environment to facilitate emotional, social and intellectual growth.
Whereas responsibility for information gains and standard of achievement rests with the student, the faculty has a responsibility for assessing the extent to which each student is equipped academically to progress through a course leading to a degree in medicine. The student has a dual obligation to meet the educational standards required by the university which awards the medical degree and to meet the professional requirements which the medical registration authority assumes have been met if a degree has been awarded.
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 Alfred Hospital Cluster and the Monash Medical Centre Cluster, and in Royal Park, Larundel and Fairfield Hospitals. Teaching may also take place in other 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.
A new medical curriculum commenced with first and second years in 1991. The new 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 new 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 the first three years. 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.
During the first three years of the course all students will undertake at least one week of option study in a rural area.
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 Club
An application to enter the combined degree program can only be made after acceptance into the medical course. A small interfaculty selection committee will assess the applicants and make recommendations to the deans of the faculties of Medicine and Law concerning the most suitable candidates. It is not anticipated that more than two or three students will be accepted into the combined program each year. Applicants will need to demonstrate that they have the interest and the capacity to carry them through the program. The interfaculty committee will also review the progress of the students accepted into the program.
Any inquiries should be directed to Professor Stephen Cordner (03 9684 4301) or Professor Louis Waller (03 9905 3302).
+ to provide students with an opportunity to gain an in-depth understanding of an aspect of medical science and to pursue the study of this field through research;
+ to enable students to develop skills and abilities that are critical to the successful conduct of research.
An applicant for admission to candidature should have a good overall academic record and, in addition, as a condition of entry, have achieved a credit grade in the area in which BMedSc studies are to be taken. An applicant with less than a credit may also be admitted to candidature if there are circumstances considered special by the faculty. Students admitted to this course are eligible to apply for a scholarship for the duration of the course.