Professional opportunities
Doctors practise their profession within the framework of European Community rules and national and regional regulations, both within the National Health Service and in affiliated or private facilities. They work with the aim of maintaining or achieving complete health (complete psychological, physical and social well-being) for individuals and society. In carrying out their professional activities, they collaborate, through teamwork, with other health professionals, maintaining a high level of interpersonal skills and coordinating the work of the interprofessional (with other health professionals) and intraprofessional (with other doctors) teams in which they operate.
In order to perform this function, doctors must have a strong sense of their professional role (professionalism). This includes clinical competence, i.e. the habitual and correct use of knowledge, communication skills, technical skills, clinical reasoning, emotions and values to be continually rethought in daily practice for the benefit of the individual and the community being cared for, a commitment to pursuing accurate professional development, health promotion, adherence to the ethical principles of the profession and values such as personal integrity, honesty, altruism, humility, respect for diversity, transparency and respect for conflicts of interest.
The doctor must therefore maintain: a constant commitment to patients, being able to apply best clinical practices in accordance with high ethical standards; a constant commitment to society, being able to understand and respond to its expectations in terms of healthcare; a continuous commitment to the duties of the profession, respecting its rules and codes of professional ethics; a commitment to maintaining their own mental and physical well-being, in order to improve their ability to care for the health of their patients.
Higher levels of responsibility and coordination of the interprofessional and intraprofessional working group in which they will operate can be achieved through the acquisition of additional skills via further training courses, such as specialisation schools, regional training schools for general practitioners, research doctorates and second-level master's degrees.
Competencies associated with the role
The competencies associated with the role of the medical doctor have been defined with reference to the international criteria set out in the CANMEDS Physician Competency Framework, which is currently the international benchmark. In accordance with the concept of “continuum” defined in CanMEDS, the competencies listed below will be acquired at an initial level, as mentioned above.
The skills required are those of an experienced doctor who knows how to place the patient at the centre of a high-quality, safe treatment process, based on their up-to-date knowledge, clinical skills and professional values. They must therefore be able to gather information from the patient and know how to interpret it, know how to make clinical decisions that lead to a correct diagnosis and targeted therapeutic interventions. They must be aware of the limitations of their profession. Their decisions must be based on best clinical practices and scientific evidence, taking into account the wishes of the patient and the economic resources of the healthcare system of the country in which they operate. Their clinical practice must therefore be extremely up-to-date, ethical and capable of ensuring the efficient use of available resources, conducted in close “collaboration” with the patient and their family, other members of the intra-professional and interprofessional working group and the entire community. The essential task of the degree programme is to provide up-to-date technical skills and to educate students on their constant future updating, as well as to verify their acquisition through the usual assessment procedures.
Knowing how to be an expert doctor is central to the practice of the profession and brings with it other intrinsically related skills, specified below:
Skilled communicator. Medical doctors must be able to establish a relationship with the patient and their family, facilitating the gathering and sharing of information essential for effective treatment. They must therefore be able to explore symptoms that may be related to the condition by listening to the patient's account of their illness. They must be able to explore the patient's perspective on their idea of illness, their fears and their health expectations, taking into account gender differences. The doctor must be able to integrate their scientific knowledge into the specific context of the patient, their socio-economic status, their personal life history, their current life situation, work, educational and cultural level, and be able to detect particular conditions related to the social and psychological sphere. In order to place the patient at the centre of the care process, it will be very important to be able to share decisions in such a way as to align health needs with the patient's desires, values and preferences. The teaching of communication skills is an integral part of the core curriculum of single courses and is assessed in the relevant exams.
Good collaborator. The doctor must be able to work efficiently and effectively with other members of the intra- and interprofessional team in order to provide safe, high-quality, patient-centred care. Effective collaboration requires relationships based on trust, respect and sharing, which can ensure continuity in the care process itself. This requires sharing knowledge, perspectives and responsibilities, and a willingness to learn from each other.
Leader. The doctor will be able to engage with other members of the team to contribute to a vision based on high-quality care, taking responsibility for its correct delivery to patients. The doctor will therefore be able to contribute effectively to the development of healthcare services that are continuously improving in quality, by seeking effective collaboration with other actors in the healthcare system at local, regional and national level, with a view to globalisation.
Health advocate. In this role, doctors must use their experience and influence to serve the community and improve its overall health and wellbeing. In this context, improving health should not be limited to improving the state of illness, but must necessarily include the prevention of illness itself, through the promotion and protection of health. This also implies equity in health promotion, meaning that individuals and communities should not be disadvantaged on the basis of ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, social class, economic status, or level of education. Doctors will be able to support patients in navigating the national health system and help them receive care in the appropriate manner and in a timely manner. Medical-Scientific Methodology courses are the ideal place to learn about Medical Ethics, which is essential for students to acquire their social role.
Scholar. Doctors must demonstrate their commitment to achieving and maintaining excellence in clinical practice through continuous training. They must be able to teach other colleagues, making decisions based on scientific evidence (evidence-based medicine) and actively contributing to clinical innovation, including through translational scientific research. Doctors will pursue excellence in their daily work, including through active discussion with other colleagues and by seeking feedback in terms of patient satisfaction and safety. They will be able to correctly integrate international scientific evidence into clinical practice applied to individual patients, incorporating the preferences and values of the patient themselves into the decision-making process.
Professionalism. The concept of professionalism implies that doctors must commit themselves to caring for the health and well-being of individual patients and the community through ethical conduct, high standards of professional behaviour, responsibility towards the profession and society, and maintaining a lifestyle that does not bring the profession into disrepute. Awareness of one's professional identity is central to this role, which requires perfect mastery of the art, science and practice of medicine. They must be aware that their professional role fully reflects what modern society expects of them, namely clinical competence, responsibility for professional development, health promotion, full adherence to ethical standards and values such as personal integrity, altruism, humility, respect for others and diversity, transparency and respect for potential conflicts of interest.