Monash University

Program

The Bachelor of Medical Science and Doctor of Medicine is a 4-year graduate-entry degree designed for students who have completed their undergraduate studies and are prepared to enter professional training to become a doctor. Course content emphasizes clinical communication skills and early clinical contact visits to medical practices, community care facilities, and hospitals.

Year A of study is largely campus-based, at the Monash University School of Rural Health co-located on the Gippsland campus of Federation University Australia with rural clinical and community placements. Interdisciplinary units introduce the basic medical and behavioural sciences of anatomy, biochemistry, genetics, immunology, microbiology, pathology, pharmacology, physiology, and psychology, together with sociology of health, clinical skills, ethics, and medical law. After completion of the first year in the graduate program, you will progress into Year 3.

Years 3 – 5 of the course are conducted in clinical settings, generally in hospitals and practices across metropolitan Melbourne and rural Victoria. You will spend around 40 hours per week working at a clinical site. This will provide you with time for self-directed study, and the time and opportunity to be in control of your own learning and to develop skills in problem-solving and the critical appraisal of information. Year five offers rotations through a number of clinical settings, such as aged care and emergency care, with the opportunity for a specialty selective placement.

The program develops through theme studies in personal and professional development; population, society, health and Illness; scientific basis of clinical practice; and clinical skills, all of which come together in professional practice demonstrated in the clinical placement units.

Part A. Personal and professional development
Personal and professional development focuses on the doctor as an individual and concentrates on the personal attributes and qualities needed by medical students and medical practitioners. It covers elements of health enhancement, professional responsibilities, communication skills, information technology, medical informatics and computing skills, ethics and legal issues, and clinical effectiveness.

Part B. Population, society, health, and illness
Population, society, health, and illness develops your abilities to deal with broader society and population issues. Students will consider the social, environmental, and behavioural contexts of illness and the practice of medicine, including an emphasis on rural and remote Australia. Other elements of this theme will be built around health promotion, epidemiology, public health, community diversity, population and global health, and a range of other societal issues. The history and philosophy of the scientific approach to medicine will also be included, extending this to approaches to knowledge and information, and an understanding of evidence-based medicine.

Part C. Scientific basis of clinical practice
Scientific basis of clinical practice includes much of the human systems-based teaching in the course. The knowledge and concepts that underpin medicine, both in the basic medical sciences and in the clinical sciences, are included.

Part D. Clinical skills
This theme encompasses the whole range of clinical skills. This begins with clinical aspects of communication skills and introduction to practical clinical skills including handwashing, sharps disposal, and subcutaneous and intramuscular injecting. Early in the course, you’ll interact with health care professionals during medical contact visits, and you’ll be introduced to the medical interview, taking a family history, and ethical aspects of medical contact visits. Comprehensive history taking, systems based physical examinations and procedural clinical skills are further developed during later clinical placements.

Clinical Placements
The final year of the course focuses on facilitating your transition into the medical workplace as a trainee intern. You will participate in a range of learning experiences designed to substantially enhance your research skills, clinical reasoning, diagnostic and case management skills. You will consolidate and enhance your knowledge, clinical skills and professional behaviours in clinically orientated rotations integrated with sessions in patient safety and preparedness for professional practice. The six clinical rotations are:

• Aged care
• Emergency medicine
• Medicine
• Scholarly intensive project
• Specialty
• Surgery