Educational goals

The general objective of the Degree Course in Medicine and Surgery in Italian, defined as Golgi, is to enable a general practitioner with a solid scientific, professional and ethical background, who allows a personalized approach to the patient and a multidisciplinary and integrated approach to the management of community health, even in contexts of high clinical complexity and ever-changing cultural needs. The organization, functioning and results of the Degree Course will be subject to continuous quality evaluation: the evaluation process, in which both students and teachers will be involved, involves and is aimed at a constant review and continuous updating of the curriculum. The Degree Course provides for a total of 360 University Credits (CFU), spread over six years of course, of which at least 60 are to be acquired in practical training activities aimed at the maturation of specific professional skills (professionalizing CFU). Each CFU corresponds to a student commitment of 25 hours, of which 8 hours of lectures and 17 hours of individual study or 20 hours of practical training and 5 hours of individual study. Fifteen of the 60 professional credits are reserved for the pre-degree practical-evaluation internship (divided by surgical area, medical area and general medicine), to be carried out starting from the fifth year after passing all the exams required in the first 4 years. The achievement of the qualifying degree in Medicine and Surgery, with the passing of the final exam, qualifies for the practice of the profession of Surgeon by virtue of the performance of the aforementioned practical-evaluation internship. Considering the continuous increase in the annual quota of students enrolled in the course, the students were divided into two groups (A-L and M-Z) in order to ensure a better quality of teaching and a constant teacher/student ratio. The student will be provided with a solid and continuous experience in a clinical environment, both hospital and territorial, to guarantee him not only the confidence necessary for the management of the patient's clinical problems, but also the ability to relate to him and his family with clarity and a spirit of service, adopting the appropriate communication strategies, aware of the interactive value of communication and the importance of the attitude to listening. A rigorous education in lifelong learning will be required to give the student the flexibility and cultural availability suitable to operate in the complexity of modern society, in which the evolution of thought and the role of the doctor are constantly changing, and to understand the changing health needs of the population, also in the light of the aging of the population and an increasingly multiethnic society. The specific mission of the Golgi Degree Course in Medicine and Surgery is aimed at the development of "professional competence" and "values of professionalism" and is based on the importance of integrating the following paradigms: treating disease, taking care of the human being, ensuring the complexity of care and assistance. This specific mission is therefore aimed at training and qualifying a doctor, at an initial professional level, who possesses: 1) a multidisciplinary, interprofessional and integrated vision of the most common problems of health and disease; 2) education oriented to the prevention of disease and the promotion of health within the community and the territory; 3) a deep knowledge of the new needs of care and health, focused not only on illness, but, above all, on the sick man, considered in his totality of soma and psyche, in his specificity of gender and population and inserted in a specific social context; 4) the ability to communicate and interact effectively with all the interlocutors involved in the patient's care path (colleagues, nurses, social workers, etc.); 5) knowledge of the principles underlying sustainability in the medical profession; 6) safety and awareness of his/her own abilities, as well as knowledge of the health contexts in which he/she will operate derived from training experiences, both in the hospital and in the local area; 7) the willingness to assume one's responsibilities, to recognize one's limits and to accept the stress generated by particularly serious situations; 8) experience in working in a team and ability to enhance the professional skills of the team in which he/she operates. The main objective of the Degree Course is to recognize and guarantee the centrality of the student in the educational process, and he will be guaranteed a preparation not inferior to the quality standards considered necessary today at national and international level. The student will be directed towards a constant and deep attention to the human aspects of health and disease, will have to develop the ability to deal with medical problems according to a scientific mentality and methodology matured also through personal participation in research projects. In the didactic project of the Degree Course in Medicine and Surgery, the right balance of vertical and transversal integration is proposed between: 1) the basic sciences, which must be broad and include knowledge of evolutionary biology, molecular biology and genetics and biological complexity aimed at the knowledge of the structure and function of the human organism under normal conditions, for the purpose of maintaining health conditions and the correct application of translational scientific research; 2) knowledge of morbid processes and the mechanisms that cause them, also in order to set up prevention, diagnosis and therapy also from a gender perspective; 3) clinical and methodological medical practice, which must be particularly solid, through a wide use of tutorial-type teaching, capable of transforming theoretical knowledge into personal experience in such a way as to build one's own scale of values and interests, and to acquire the professional skills useful for knowing how to manage the complexity of medicine; 4) the human sciences, which must constitute a useful background to achieve the awareness of being a doctor and of the profound values of the doctor's professionalism; 5) the acquisition of scientific, medical, clinical and professional methodology aimed at the health problems of the individual and the community, with due attention to population and gender differences. Since the graduate's profile outlines an open professional figure, who operates not only in the hospital environment but also in an outpatient and territorial context, the training will include moments of analysis of social and health situations, participation in health planning activities, experiences in home medicine and at family doctors' offices, attendance in the emergency room, experiences of palliative medicine for the terminally ill. In order to stimulate the ability to work in a team, training modules will be provided characterized by work in small groups, so as to accustom the future doctor to this methodological approach, moments of direct experience of work in collaboration with other health professionals, such as to reproduce the practice of group work and analyze the communication flows that are established both internally and externally. Consistency between exams and learning objectives will be ensured; In particular, cognitive objectives will be preferentially evaluated according to objective, written tests, appropriately supplemented by interviews aimed at assessing the student's reasoning skills. On the other hand, the achievement of relational and gestural objectives will be assessed according to objective methods of detection, for example during professional internships. The expected learning outcomes are defined here by integrating the European Descriptors (5 Dublin descriptors) with what is proposed by the Institute for International Medical Education (IIME), Task Force for Assessment, and by "The TUNING Project (Medicine) – Learning Outcomes/Competences for Undergraduate Medical Education in Europe". Below are the learning objectives for the single-cycle Master's Degree Courses in Medicine and Surgery and attributed to the different methodological skills provided for by Ministerial Decree 16/03/2007, art. 3 paragraph 7 required for such graduates. The objectives are also consistent with what is indicated by the Permanent Conference of the Presidents of the Teaching Councils of Medicine and Surgery (http://presidenti-medicina.it/).

Career opportunities

The qualifying degree in Medicine and Surgery allows you to practice the profession of general surgeon in Hospitals, Specialist Centers and Outpatient Clinics, both public and private, and rehabilitation and care facilities for the elderly. It is a fundamental requirement for access to the Specialisation Schools in the medical, surgical and services areas and to the regional training course for General Practitioners. It allows access to national and international health and humanitarian organizations, public or private research centers, pharmaceutical and biomedical companies, as well as second-level university masters and PhD courses. The exercise of the profession, both within the NHS and as a freelancer, is regulated by the laws of the State.

Admission requirements

The single-cycle Master's Degree in Medicine and Surgery has limited access at the national level; the requirements and methods of access are governed by national laws and ministerial regulations. To be admitted to the single-cycle Master's Degree in Medicine and Surgery, it is necessary to have an Upper Secondary School Diploma or other equivalent foreign qualification. Non-EU international students are required to have a knowledge of the Italian language at level B2 (https://portale.unipv.it/it/didattica/corsi-di-laurea/ammissioni/iscriversi-ad-un-corso-di-studio-con-titolo-conseguito-allestero). The knowledge and skills required are defined annually by the Ministerial Decree. The essential prerequisites for students who want to enrol in a degree course in medicine should include: good ability to human contact, good ability to work in a team, ability to analyze and solve problems, ability to independently acquire new knowledge and information by being able to critically evaluate them (Maastricht, 1999). In addition to the scientific knowledge useful for attending the first year of the course, the student should therefore also possess good attitudes and valid motivational components, important for the formation of a 'good doctor' who knows how to relate correctly to the required social responsibilities. The methods for verifying the knowledge required for admission are defined in the Didactic Regulations of the degree programme. Students who have been admitted to the Degree Programme with a grade lower than a pre-established minimum grade are required to be assigned additional educational obligations to be fulfilled within the first year of the course.