Clinical Training ​

In concurrence with the new AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges) guidelines, which require simulation training in all residency programs, the School of Medicine adheres to a simulation-based portion within the theoretical hours of the clinical curriculum. This has been designed to ensure acquisition of core competencies, including key manual skills, cognitive skills, communication skills and integrated skills. The clinical training program has been carefully designed with parallel education blocks that are intercalated with the primary pillars defined by the School of Medicine to ensure that all students complete the same material at the end of the semester. The 6th year of the School of Medicine curriculum is devoted to clinical rotations (clerkships) in all disciplines. These Senior Clerkship Rotations take place alongside the Junior Clerkship Rotations. This type of parallel block rotations with teams that include Junior and Senior Clerkship Rotations assures more effective learning, competency acquisition and transition to internship preparation. The Senior Clerkship Rotations, or Pre- Internship Training has been carefully designed to ensure that students will be able to function as independent physicians during their residency training. As such, the Senior Clerkship Rotation will act as a critical transition point, when the observational apprentice becomes an active and accountable clinical practitioner. In year 6, the Pre-Internship Year, students attend Traineeship rotations across the 5 Clinical Core Disciplines (Internal Medicine, Surgery, Neuroscience/Mental Health, Family medicine/Primary Care, and Maternal/Child Health). Traineeships constitute the cornerstone of the pre-internship training: during traineeships, the primary activities evolve around doctor shadowing, competency acquisition and confirmation of all necessary theoretical knowledge that is required for transition to professionalism and responsibility after graduation. This is confirmed and assessed through the individual student logbooks and by the final assessments (written and oral) during the final year of studies. Themes such as medical ethics, legal aspects of medical practice, family medicine, public health, research methodology, etc. span all years and are threaded throughout the basic modules and clinical clerkships. Clinical training takes place in pre-determined sites of the public and private sector, following appropriate planning by the Clinical Training Committee. The available training sites for EUC medical students include primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare centers with sufficient outpatient clinics, patient wards, special departments, diagnostic departments, clinical laboratories, to allow clinical training to be organized with appropriate rotations throughout all main disciplines, as outlined in the EUC Medical Curriculum. Clinical training is continuously supervised by personnel of the School of Medicine of EUC, in collaboration with the clinical coordinators of the hospitals and the clinical instructors of the various departments, and is performed according to the predefined clinical training program.