The University of Liverpool undergraduate
Faculty of Medicine
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE COURSE
The GOAL of the undergraduate medical curriculum is: "To produce caring
doctors who are competent to deliver the highest quality of health care by
incorporating scientific advances into their own practice, who will contribute
to those advances and who are eager to go on learning more throughout their
professional lives".
The AIMS of the undergraduate medical curriculum embrace three overlapping
domains of LEARNING:
1. KNOWLEDGE & UNDERSTANDING
of the theoretical basis of clinical practice - including biomedical sciences,
diagnostic and therapeutic rationales and perspectives on behaviour and
populations;
2. PROFESSIONAL SKILLS
learning, critical appraisal, logical reasoning, communication and practical
clinical skills;
3. PROFESSIONAL QUALITIES & BEHAVIOUR
attitudes, ethics, team-work, accountability and responsibility for continuing
learning.
General objectives
The GENERAL OBJECTIVES of The University of Liverpool Medical Curriculum are
that by the end of the undergraduate course the student will possess:
A. Knowledge and Understanding
- A broad knowledge and understanding of the mechanisms of the body in
health and disease from molecules up to the whole organism.
- An understanding of the relevant behavioural sciences including the
interaction between individuals, their families, society and the environment
in order to prevent illness and promote health.
- A more detailed knowledge of several areas, chosen by the undergraduate
personally.
B. Intellectual skills
- A curiosity and a desire to know more, and the ability to find the
information needed.
- The ability to integrate knowledge, and to manage its application to
practice and its transfer from one field to another.
- Well developed skills in logical reasoning, critical appraisal and
problem-solving.
C. Communication skills
- Listening as well as talking skills.
- Competence in written communication and the use of other media (including
computers).
- The ability to communicate with colleagues (including nurses and
professionals allied to medicine) clearly, courteously and effectively.
- The ability to communicate diagnosis and prognosis and explain treatment
in terms which patients and relatives can understand.
Included in this aim is the ability to convey bad news sympathetically and to
handle the emotion which is generated.
D. Clinical skills
- The ability to take a relevant clinical history and perform an appropriate
clinical examination accurately and sensitively.
- The ability to form a reasonable hypothesis from the clinical findings and
to take appropriate action to confirm or refute the diagnosis.
- Familiarity with common conditions, and the ability to recognise
conditions which are less common and which require referral to a specialist.
- The ability to recognise when a patient needs urgent management and, in
particular, to recognise when it is necessary to call for help.
- The ability to recognise psychological distress and to deal with it.
- The ability to respond to the individual person's problem, illness or
disease by formulating (with justification) a management plan for the common
conditions within both hospital and community settings.
E. Professional qualities
- The confidence to be self-critical and a willingness to evaluate personal
performance and practice to a level adequate for the start of supervised
professional practice.
- The ability to work effectively as a member of multi-disciplinary
health-care teams.
- An ethical "instinct" which reflects Professional Declarations of
Standards and Behaviour.
- The ability to respond constructively to changes in professional practice
and the demands of society.
- Commitment to advancing the science and art of medical practice, both for
personal development and on behalf of the profession.
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