The bachelor’s degree in Medicine is planned around the following axes, approaches and principles:
1. People, at the centre of the training
Both the doctor and the patient are at the centre of medical practice. It is therefore imperative to train integrative doctors who are able to see the patient holistically in their personal and social context, while also understanding the determining factors of their individual and community health.
For this reason, early contact between the students and clinical settings are encouraged, placing special emphasis on primary case, while they are also supported in learning the scientific component of the course to motivate and focus the student’s activities on their final objective. Students benefit from early assimilation of clinical practices and develop professional skills.
2. Science, at the heart of medical practice
Knowledge about health and disease, as well as its constant evolution, comes from scientific research, therefore it is essential to include research as part of medical training.
For doctors, science and professional skills go hand in hand, and research is a tool both for solving medical problems in day-to-date practice and a source of new knowledge. The promote this, students will have to develop research projects within the framework of the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park (PRBB) and the clinical and biomedical institutions that make it up.
Technologies for medical use have also experienced spectacular advances in information and communications technologies, genomics, proteomics, metabolomics, big data analysis or imaging techniques, to name a few. This is the scientific and social context in which a doctor, wherever they are, will work in the future. That is why it is essential to learn these new languages.
3. Social and ethical commitment of the medical profession
As scientific knowledge and medical technologies are at the service of the people, the medical profession must make a strong social and ethical commitment.
Understanding patients requires knowledge and awareness of the cultural and social conditions caused by a decline in health. This approach includes an appropriate recognition of gender and cultural diversity.
Future doctors must know how to handle complex situations in the medico-social field, such as dignified death, gene therapies, prioritisation of human and material resources, use of new technologies and their social implications, gender equality, clinical research and transfer, as well as problems associated with the use of genetic material and biobanks, among others.
The bachelor’s degree in Medicine is also committed to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with its socially responsible curriculum to give students the skills to use their profession to help achieve these goals.
4. Development of social, emotional, communication and non-cognitive skills relevant to Medicine
Non-cognitive and social skills, such as empathy, tolerance, self-control, self-esteem, resilience, curiosity, ability to take initiative, are valued, taught and assessed as part of this degree programme, in addition to scientific and technical knowledge, because they are an essential part of the individual and social development of the health care professional.
These skills indicate an ability to inform and communicate, to create a collaborative environment for decision making based on scientific evidence about diseases and treatments, as well as to explain good and bad news and to assess difficult situations.
5. Student-centred and active learning: the development of clinical reasoning
As patients are at the centre of our curriculum, the learning process must be student centred.
The curriculum includes subjects that contain intersectional analysis of health problems by considering pathophysiological processes that could cause them, including aetiology, clinical symptoms, and available diagnostic tools and treatments.
Traditional teaching methods, based on lectures and traditional placements, do not allow students to fully acquire clinical skills. Therefore, the content and skills on this course are taught using innovative teaching methods such as problem-based and project-based learning, flipped classroom and other blended learning methods. These are ideal training activities to help students to gain critical thinking skills for clinical environments, aimed at automating the diagnostic processes that are essential for medical professional activity.
