Duration
4 Years (FT)
Entry Requirements for EU applicants:
Candidates must hold a minimum 2.1 (second class honours, grade one) result in their first honours bachelor degree (NFQ Level 8).
For candidates who meet this requirement GAMSAT (Graduate Australian Medical Schools Admissions Test) will then be used as the sole instrument to select students for the programme (www.gamsat-ie.org).
Entry Requirements for Non-EU applicants:
Candidates must hold a minimum 2.1 (second class honours, grade one) result in their first honours bachelor degree (NFQ Level 8).
For candidates who meet this requirement GAMSAT (Graduate Australian Medical Schools Admissions Test) or in the case of North American applicants, MCAT will be used as an instrument for selection. Non-EU applicants must also attend for interview as part of the selection process.
EU Application Process
Applications must be made through the CAO. Information about applying through the CAO is available at www.cao.ie. The course code for the Graduate Medical Programme is LM101.
Non-EU Application Process:
Applications must be made directly to the University. Application forms are available from the website: www.ul.ie/internationaleducation and must be returned to: International Education Office, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland.
Introduction
UL's BM BS Graduate Medical Programme (GMP) is open to graduates from any discipline. It has a highly innovative curriculum which offers students the opportunity to complete undergraduate medical training in four years in an environment specifically designed for graduate students. During your four years of study, you will be taught all of the basic medical and clinical sciences necessary to form the basis for postgraduate training and for a career in one or other branch of medicine.
Programme of study
The curriculum is taught in a traditional academic year, starting in September. Years 1 & 2 are taught on campus and consist of 33 teaching weeks per year. Years 3 & 4 consist of clinical training, where students rotate through the major clinical disciplines in affiliated hospitals and training general practices. The curriculum has three main modules or domains: Knowledge of Health & Illness; Clinical and Anatomical Skills; Professional Competencies. These domains are designed to ensure that all aspects of the skills required to be a doctor are addressed, from the sciences underpinning a rational approach to diagnosis and management, to an awareness of the importance of personal development.
Programme Outline
| Year 1 |
Year 2 |
Autumn - Spring
BM4001 Knowledge of Health & Illness 1
BM4011 Clinical and Anatomical Skills1
BM4021 Professional Competencies 1 |
BM4002 Knowledge of Health & Illness 2
BM4012 Clinical and Anatomical Skills 2
BM4022 Professional Competencies 2 |
| Year 3 |
Year 4 |
BM4003 Knowledge of Health & Illness 3
BM4013 Clinical and Anatomical Skills 3
BM4023 Professional Competencies 3 |
BM4004 Knowledge of Health & Illness 4
BM4014 Clinical and Anatomical Skills 4
BM4024 Professional Competencies 4 |
The three modules (Knowledge of Health & Illness; Clinical and Anatomical Skills; Professional Competencies) run concurrently and underpin all learning. In each of the first two years, the curriculum is then further divided into six learning units, covering different topic areas. Areas covered by each unit include:
- Life Structure: Musculo-skeletal system, Rheumatology, Orthopaedics, Trauma, Plastic Surgery, Skin & Dermatology
- Life Cycle: Reproduction & Development, Child Health (Paediatrics), Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Sexual Health, Ageing, Death
- Life Maintenance: Alimentary System, Gastroenterology, Endocrinology, Renal Medicine, Urology, Nutrition
- Life Protection: Immunology, Infection, Haematology, Oncology, Preventative Medicine, Genito-Urinary Medicine
- Life Support: Cardiology/Cardiovascular Surgery, Respiratory Medicine, ENT
- Life Control: Nervous system, Neurology/ Neurosurgery, Vision & Ophthalmology, Psychiatry, Psychology
| Year 3 |
Year 4 |
| General Practice/Primary Care (21 weeks) |
Medicine & Related Specialties (21 weeks) |
| Obstetrics/Gynaecology (7 weeks) |
|
| Paediatrics (7 weeks) |
Surgery & Related Specialties
(21 weeks) |
| Psychiatry (7 weeks) |
|
The three programme modules continue throughout Years 3 & 4.The structure of teaching and learning in Years 3 & 4 will involve student rotations through the major clinical disciplines as outlined in the above table.
SPECIAL STUDY MODULES (SSMs)
Special Study Modules allow students to study in depth areas that are of particular interest to them. In total, students undertake four SSMs, one in each of Years 2 & 3 and two in Year 4. Students have considerable choice over the subject of these projects, but the format for assessment e.g. an academic paper, or a poster and presentation is prescribed. Each student will have a dedicated tutor to help guide their projects and to ensure they stay on track. Some students might choose to go abroad for their SSM and UL is happy to help with this - e.g. by facilitating student exchanges.
HOW YOU WILL BE TAUGHT
Years 1 & 2
The first two years of the course are structured around problem-based learning (PBL). This is backed up by a small number of lectures. There will also be structured clinical skills teaching and anatomical skills teaching. Teaching in the Professional Competencies takes the form of lectures, tutorials, workshops and seminars on topics such as psychology, public health, health law & ethics and medical sociology. All sessions are focused towards the topic of the week and exploring it from different perspectives including the scientific, sociological, public health, legal and patient experience. This means that everything you learn is done in the context in which you will use it when you practice as a doctor.
What Problem-Based Learning (PBL) really means
The 'problems' are highly structured hypothetical clinical cases, each of which takes a week to work through. Each semester, students are divided into groups of seven or eight, each with its own tutor in a tutorial room, with intranet linked PC and walls lined with whiteboards. The group meets, with the tutor, to work through the week's case. The tutor does not act as a teacher, but as a facilitator, guiding the group through the sequence of steps which have been devised to help learn from the scenarios. Each step and new development (such as results of investigations or details of drugs prescribed) is only given out after the group has finished discussing the previous step.
By working through the problem and hypothesising about what is wrong with the patient, the PBL group comes up with a list of learning issues that represent the key knowledge needed to understand what is happening to the patient. The group members then go away and independently research these learning issues.
At the next PBL tutorial, the group discusses what they have learned and the tutor distributes the next stage of the problem. The new information is discussed, new learning issues arrived at, and members go off again to do independent research. The group report back again and the final stage of the problem is explored and the case concluded. By this time, the group is likely to have worked through:
The original presentation of the patient (either at A&E, an outpatient clinic or a GP clinic)
The history taken by the doctor
The examination findings
Any investigations ordered and their findings (e.g. blood results, x-rays, biopsies, etc)
The course of the patient's illness (over hours, days, weeks, months or years) and the impact of this on the patient's life
Treatment (pharmacological, surgical, psychiatric, etc)
The involvement of family and others close to the patient
Any complications that might have arisen
The outcome of the case (including rehabilitation, ongoing community care, etc.)
Independent learning times are not just about reading from textbooks. During these times, students are encouraged to visit and make use of facilities of the Anatomical Skills Resource Centre and Clinical Skills Resource Centre.
Staff will be on hand to provide support in whatever area you feel you need it. However, to a large extent the graduate students in the programme will be both encouraged and expected to assume a high level of responsibility for their own learning. Students will not be 'spoon fed' and there is a deliberate strategy to minimize the amount of didactic teaching in the curriculum.
Years 3 & 4
In Year 3, all students will be located in the General Practice/Primary Care setting in one of five Primary Care Teaching Networks (PCTNs) for a full 21 weeks. For the remainder of Year 3, students will undergo hospital-based clinical training in Obstetrics/Gynaecology, Paediatrics and Psychiatry.
In Year 4, students will spend 21 weeks of Clinical Training in Medicine & Related Specialties and another 21 weeks in Surgery & Related Specialties. This will involve rotations through a number of affiliated hospitals.
Additional information
Further information, including information on Fees and Semester dates can be found on the Medical School website: www.ul.ie/medicalschool.
Graduate Medical School Tel: 00 353 61 233756/233740 Email: medicalschool@ul.ie
