The University of Adelaide
Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS)

Program Outline

The MBBS Program at the University of Adelaide provides students with state of the art education and training to enable them, as graduates, to practise medicine in the 21st Century. Over the last 15 years, the Faculty has devoted considerable time to reviewing the requirements of graduates to ensure that they will become effective modern medical practitioners and to develop and evaluate styles of learning and teaching that are best suited to producing such graduates. The outcome is a state of the art, integrated educational program. In addition to producing graduates who are fully competent to undertake an internship, a major aim of the curriculum is to make learning enjoyable and stimulating.  It has been important and pleasing to see students so obviously enjoying themselves as they learn.

Program Emphases and Structure

The three major "streams" of the course are the core elements of medical practice: the Scientific Basis of Medicine, Clinical Skills and Medical Personal and Professional Development. These three streams form the basis of an integrated case-based program in Years 1-3. Throughout Years 4-6, students will expand their knowledge, experience and skills within these three streams as they undertake placements within the teaching hospitals and in the broader medical community.
Case-based learning (CBL) has been adopted as the dominant learning mode during the early years of the curriculum. The curriculum begins with an introduction to case-based learning (CBL) processes and study continues in small groups using clinical cases of the most common and important diseases as a basis. Lectures are carefully staged throughout each CBL case to provide key information to assist the students as they progress. Resource (or practical) sessions relating to the case are introduced throughout the week at appropriate times. These sessions allow students to work with physiological problems and introduce them to anatomical specimens that demonstrate normal features, often in conjunction with diseased specimens. These sessions are designed to have practical application. Rather than memorising unnecessary detail, the emphasis throughout the program is on understanding, and being able to explain, mechanisms and principles. Many students may need help with some of the basic concepts of biology and chemistry in order to study medicine effectively and efficiently.
In Year 1, students undertake two semesters of biology: Molecules, Genes and Cells in semester 1 and Human Perspectives in semester 2. (International and tertiary transfer students with extensive science background may apply to receive credit for Year 1 biology.) Throughout the CBL program, learning in medical disciplines such as pathology, anatomy, physiology, and pharmacology are taught in the context of the case under study.  Students are then able to bring this core learning to their later placements within the public teaching hospitals and the broader medical and health community.
Training in clinical skills begins in week one. In Years 1 and 2 this is done by senior clinicians in small groups in a dedicated clinical skills laboratory.  The clinical study program is linked to the system of the CBL case under study.  In Year 3, clinical skills training is located primarily in the public teaching hospitals.  In years 4-6 students will advance their clinical skills competencies throughout a range of clinical attachments.  Because clinical skills training begins in Year 1, the traditional divide between "pre-clinical and clinical" teaching has been eliminated. A major emphasis is placed on developing effective communication and decision-making skills, the practice of evidence-based and preventative medicine and on becoming competent users of information and information technology.
The Medical Professional and Personal Development stream aims to introduce students to the complex communication, ethical, psycho-social, and preventative medicine competencies required by a medical practitioner.  Preventative medicine is increasingly being recognised as one of the most important elements of a modern health system.  The University of Adelaide MBBS program places a special emphasis on evidence based medicine and the principles of public health that inform the practise of preventive medicine.

Community-Based Learning

Changes in health care arrangements in the community and pressures on the way in which the major teaching hospitals deliver health care have required changes to the traditional approaches to medical training. These changes have resulted in increased opportunities for students to be trained in placements within the community. In addition to these community electives, all Yr 2 students undertake a pregnancy attachment wherein each student will be introduced to a consenting pregnant woman, and they will follow this person during her pre-natal visits, labour, delivery and subsequent follow-up.

The University of Adelaide Rural Clinical School

The Spencer Gulf Rural Health School (SGRHS) is a regional multi-disciplinary school of health science created as a joint initiative of the University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia http://sgrhs.unisa.edu.au/ SGRHS is supported by the Australian federal government’s Department of Health and Ageing through the Rural Clinical Schools program (RCS), the University Department of Rural Health program (UDRH), the Rural Undergraduate Support and Coordination program (RUSC) and the Primary Health Care Research Evaluation and Development program (PHC_RED). Each of these programs provides funds to the universities for rural student placement and rural research.The SGRHS is based in Whyalla at the University of South Australia’s campus in Nicholson Avenue. The School also has campuses throughout the region including Pt Augusta, Pt Lincoln, Pt Pirie, Minlaton, Maitland, Clare, Kadina and Booleroo Centre.  These campuses are equipped with dedicated student facilities including student accommodation, study areas, libraries and up-to-date information technology (computers and video-conferencing equipment. The SGRHS academic and professional staff comprises a multidisciplinary team of highly trained and experienced health professionals and key support staff. SGRHS provides opportunities for students to be trained in a range of clinical specialties in rural South Australia. All medical students attend a rural week in the Eyre or Yorke Peninsula as part of the Year 3 curriculum. Rural Placements offer students a unique learning environment, often with more clinical and hands-on experience.  Enrolment in the Undergraduate Degree of Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery at The University of Adelaide, requires students to undertake rural clinical placements.  Commonwealth Supported Students (in both bonded and unbonded places) need to complete 4 weeks of rural placements before graduation and 25% of them need to complete one year of clinical training in a rural site. All rural programs are provided by Spencer Gulf Rural Health School.

Electives

In the later years of the program, there are opportunities to take electives in medical disciplines. In Year 4 and 5, students choose from a range of medical and scientific attachments. The Year 6 program offers a semester of three, 6-week hospital-based placements and a semester of three, 6-week elective placements in community and ambulatory locations. At least one of these 6-week attachments must be located in a rural environment, but a student may elect to do all placements in a rural area.

Support Structures

Many students entering the medicine program at the University of Adelaide are from rural, interstate or international locations, and some students experience problems adjusting to life in Adelaide. As well, students may experience stress in adjusting to university life and self-directed study. We provide support to students through this time of transition. Structures are in place to provide students with both informal counselling by staff members and access to more formal counselling arrangements. There are also student led organisations that provide support and assistance to students with particular backgrounds and interests, such as the Rural Club and an Indigenous students group.

Academic Language and Learning in Medicine Program

This program is an integrated skills development program. In conjunction with the curriculum, this further develops the communication skills needed for talking with others (including patients), as well as tertiary learning skills (especially those needed for successful participation in problem-based learning groups). The delivery mode is both in small groups and individual sessions. Small groups operate in years 1-3, and individual sessions are also available as needed. Students in Years 4-6 can have individual sessions for specific purposes.  In the first instance all international students enter this Program for orientation to tertiary studies in Australia and PBL skills development. In Year 2, international students participate in a module on academic writing skills. Other students may be selected or referred to the program, based on a written assessment in Orientation Week or ongoing tutor reports. Students can also self-select to join an ongoing group in Years 1-3 or for individual assistance.

Honours

The Honours degree of Bachelor of Medical Science is a program of study available only to students who have passed the Third Year Examination in the MBBS. There are two study options for obtaining an Honours degree of B.Med.Sc. – full-time study with intermission from the MBBS program, or part-time study concurrent with the MBBS program. The recommended option is for MBBS students to intermit for a year and enrol in the Honours degree of B.Med.Sc. on a full-time basis.

Registration

Registration with the Medical Board of South Australia. From 2006 all medical students will be registered with the Medical Board of South Australia, which has the responsibility of ensuring that all persons permitted to practise medicine in the State should be fit and proper persons who maintain appropriate professional standards. 

Careers

Before being admitted to full registration as a medical practitioner in Australia, a medical graduate must serve at least twelve months as an intern in an approved hospital. After successfully completing the internship and obtaining full registration to practice, graduates have to make a career decision regarding postgraduate specialty (including general practice) training programs offered by a professional college. There is a wide range of medical career paths and options become apparent as students progress through the program.