Presentation
Studying Medicine and Surgery requires commitment, responsibility, dedication, and an awareness that the term to treat means caring for the patient as a whole, and not merely for their disease. This implies a strong motivation to acquire the knowledge, skills, and technical, scientific, and interpersonal competencies that are essential to fulfil, accurately, conscientiously, and responsibly, the mission of the physician: to care for the patient’s psychophysical well-being.
Choosing to study Medicine and Surgery means committing oneself consistently to study and to attending classes, clinical internships, and professional training activities. The programme requires the completion of 360 university credits (CFUs); each CFU corresponds to 12.5 hours of classroom teaching and 25 hours of activity for internships and elective activities. Sixty CFUs are specifically devoted to practical training activities. The internships included in the study plan are divided into clinical internships and qualifying internships. Great importance is attached to laboratory and ward-based experience, as well as to small-group professional training activities: from the very first years of the programme, students become familiar with laboratory instruments and begin attending the wards of the affiliated teaching hospitals (Policlinico Umberto I University Hospital and Sant’Andrea Hospital). Starting from the second year, students may also make use of the facilities of a simulation laboratory (skill lab) by attending the BLS course. From the third year onward, students learn semeiological procedures, both through peer physical examination and by examining patients with organ-specific diseases. In order to facilitate the learning of the Italian language, the programme has engaged a professional actor (simulated patient) with whom third-year students interact in Italian, following pre-structured checklists, across a range of clinical scenarios. From the fourth year, students have the opportunity to acquire specific skills using simulators in the skill lab, and they attend hospital wards for two consecutive weeks in emergency-related areas (internal medicine, surgery, intensive care, orthopaedics, haematology, paediatrics), under the supervision of appropriately trained Clinical Tutors, with a Tutor-to-Student ratio of 1:1 or, at most, 1:2. From the fifth year onward, the practical training internship is complemented by the assessed internship. The skill lab is also currently being further enhanced through the acquisition of immersive professional training tools. Students also have the opportunity to attend the grossing room as part of the Pathological Anatomy course.
The Degree Programme also continually incorporates and conveys to students the elements of scientific and technological innovation that today’s physician must know and be able to use.
The Medical Doctor is equipped with the scientific foundations and the theoretical-practical training necessary to practise the medical profession in accordance with Directive 75/363/EEC, and possesses decision-making and operational autonomy, scientific curiosity, relational and clinical competencies, and a deep awareness of the value of professional ethics. Graduates in Medicine and Surgery are prepared to address the complex challenges of modern healthcare with a holistic approach to the individual, both in terms of prevention and in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. They pursue their profession in roles across the various specialist disciplines, in general practice and community medicine, in prevention and public health, and in academic, translational, biomedical, and technological research.
Degree Programme F in Medicine and Surgery, which is open to applicants from the European Union and from numerous non-EU countries, is also particularly committed to welcoming and integrating students, with the aim of building a genuine “educational community.” Programme F promotes tolerance and respect for multiculturalism and places particular emphasis on empathic cross-cultural communication through dedicated initiatives (Medical Humanities curriculum), thus contributing to the training of physicians and researchers whose added value lies in having an open mind towards the surrounding world and towards the challenges and opportunities entailed in being a “doctor in the world,” regardless of where they will eventually practise their profession.