Goals

The methodology of the curriculum has been designed in such a way that students will gain the knowledge and know-how required to acquire professional skills and abilities. Based on this idea, and in accordance with the Ministerial Order ECI/332/2008, the University of Lleida's Faculty of Medicine ensures that students acquire the practical knowledge required of them in the following areas:

Professional values, professional attitudes and ethical behaviour

• Recognising the essential elements of medical practice, including ethical principles and legal responsibilities.
• Understanding the importance of principles such as the interests of the patient, society, and the profession, with special attention to professional confidentiality.
• Knowing how to apply the principle of social justice to professional practice.
• Engaging in professional medical practice with respect for patient autonomy, beliefs and culture.
• Recognising one's limitations and the need to maintain and update professional skills, with particular emphasis on the autonomous acquisition of new knowledge and skills, and having the motivation for maintaining professional excellence.
• Engaging in professional medical practice with respect for other health professionals.

Scientific bases of medicine

• Understanding and recognising the structure and normal function of the human body at the molecular, cellular, tissue, organ, and systemic level, at different stages of life.
• Recognising the basis of normal human behaviour and behavioural disorders.
• Understanding and recognising the effects, mechanisms and manifestations of disease on the structure and function of the human body.
• Understanding and recognising the causative agents and risk factors that determine the state of health and the development of diseases.
• Understanding and recognising the effects of growth, development and aging on the individuals and their social environment.
• Understanding the bases for the effect, indications and efficacy of therapeutic interventions, based on available scientific evidence.

Clinical skills

• Obtaining and developing a medical records that contain all relevant information.
• Performing a physical examination and mental assessment.
• Being able to develop an initial diagnostic judgment and establish a rational diagnostic strategy.
• Recognising and addressing immediate life-Threatening risks and those that require immediate intervention.
• Establishing a diagnosis, prognosis and treatment, by applying principles based on the best information possible information available.
• Chosing the most suitable therapies for the most common acute and chronic conditions, as well as for terminally ill patients.
• Planning and proposing the most appropriate preventive measures for each clinical situation.
• Acquiring adequate clinical experience in hospitals, health centres or other health institutions under professional supervision.

Communication skills

• Listening attentively, obtaining and synthesising relevant information about the problems afflicting the patient and understanding the content of this information.
• Writing up medical records and other clinical documents in a way that is understandable to others.
• Communicating effectively and clearly, both verbally and in writing, with patients, family members, the media and other professionals.
• Establishing good interpersonal communication skills in order to speak with efficiency and empathy to patients, families, media and other professionals.

Public health and health systems

• Recognising the determinants of population health, both genetic and lifestyle-dependent, as well as demographic, environmental, social, economic, psychological and cultural determinants.
• Playing a role in implementing, preventive and protective measures against diseases, injuries or accidents, as well as in supporting health maintenance and promotion at both the individual and community level.
• Working on multidisciplinary teams for the provision of healthcare and taking the lead when appropriate, such as in health promotion interventions.
• Obtaining and using epidemiological data to assess trends and risks in making health care decisions.
• Understanding international health organisations, their settings and factors that influence different healthcare systems.

Information management

• Being familiar with, learning to critically appraise and knowing how to use sources of clinical and biomedical information to obtain, organise, interpret and divulge scientific and healthcare information.
• Knowing how to use information and communication technologies in clinical, therapeutic, preventive and research activities.
• Maintaining and using records with patient data for later analysis, whilst protecting the confidentiality of the data.

Critical analysis and research

• Maintaining a critical, creative, constructively sceptical and research-oriented attitude in the practice of medicine.
• Understanding the importance and the limitations of scientific thought in the study, prevention and management of disease.
• Being able to formulate hypotheses, and collect and critically evaluate information for problem solving, using the scientific methods.
• Acquiring basic training for conducting research.

Competences

Module I: Morphology, Structure and Function of the Human Body (80 ECTS credits)

• Understanding cellular structure and functions. Biomolecules. Metabolism. Metabolic regulation and integration. Understanding the basic principles of human nutrition. Cellular communication. Excitable membranes. Cellular cycle. Cellular differentiation and proliferation. Genetic information, expression and regulation. Inheritance. Embryonic development and organogenesis. Understanding the morphology, structure and function of skin; blood; the circulatory, digestive, locomotor, reproductive, excretive and respiratory, endocrine, and immune systems and apparatus, as well as the central and peripheral nervous systems. Growth, maturity and aging of the various apparatus and systems. Homeostasis. Adaptation to the environment.
• Using basic laboratory materials and techniques. Interpreting standard analytical test results. Recognizing the morphology and structure of tissues, organs and systems using macroscopic, microscopic and imaging techniques. Carrying out functional tests, determining vital parameters and interpret them. Basic physical examination.

Module II Social Medicine, Communication Skills and Introduction to Research (30 ECTS credits)

• Understanding the legal foundations of medical practice. Informed consent. Confidentiality. Recognizing, diagnosing and guiding the management of physical and mental injury. Understanding and recognizing the normal evolution of a cadaver. Post-mortem diagnosis. Fundamentals of medical criminology. Being able to write legal-medical documents.
• Understanding the fundamentals of medical ethics. Bioethics. Resolving ethical conflicts. Applying professional values of excellence, altruism, duty, responsibility, integrity and honesty in the practice of medicine. Recognizing the need to maintain professional competency. Knowing how to practice medicine while respecting the autonomy of the patient, their beliefs, and their culture.
• Being familiar with the principles of preventive medicine and public health and how to apply them. Disease risk factors and prevention. Recognizing the determinants of population health. Protection against and prevention of disease, injury and accidents. Assessment of treatment quality and patient safety strategies. Vaccines. Epidemiology. Demography. Familiarity with public health planning and administration systems in the world, Europe, Spain and in autonomous communities in Spain. Familiarity with the economic and social implications of medical practice, based on efficacy and efficiency. Health and the environment. Food safety. Health in the workplace.
• Understanding, knowing how to use and critically evaluate clinical and biomedical technologies and information sources in order to obtain, organise, interpret and divulge clinical, scientific and public health information. Understanding the basic concepts of biostatistics and their application to medical science. Being able to design and carry out simple statistical studies using computer programs and interpret the results. Understanding and interpreting statistical data in the medical literature. Being familiar with the history of health and disease. Being familiar with the existence and principles of alternative medicine systems. Using a personal computer autonomously. Using search and bibliographic tools for obtaining biomedical information. Understanding and using clinical documentation procedures. Understanding and interpreting scientific texts critically. Understanding the principles of the scientific method, biomedical research and clinical trials. Understanding the principles of telemedicine. Understanding and managing the principles of (best) evidence based medicine.
• Understanding key aspects of communication with patients, family members, and their social circle: clinical relationship models, interviews, verbal communication, non-verbal communication and interference. Communicating bad news. Drafting clinical records, reports, instructions and other documents in a style understandable to patients, family members and other professionals. Giving oral and written presentations of scientific works and/or professional reports in public.

Module III Human Clinical Training.(139 ECTS credits)

• Normal and pathological pregnancy and childbirth. Puerperium. Sexually transmitted diseases. Recognising, diagnosing and assisting in the clinical management of the principal gyneacological pathologies. Contraception and fertility. Recognising, diagnosing and guiding the clinical management of the principal ophthalmological pathologies. Understanding oncological disease, its diagnosis and management. Recognising, diagnosing and assisting in the clinical management of the principa pathologies of the ear, nose and throat. Recognising, diagnosing and assisting in the clinical management of the principal cardiovascular pathologies. Recognising, diagnosing and assisting in the clinical management of the principal pathologies of the digestive system. Recognising, diagnosing and assisting in the clinical management of the principal nephro-urinary pathologies. Recognising, diagnosing and assisting in the clinical management of the principal pathologies of the locomotive apparatus. Recognising, diagnosing and assisting in the clinical management of the principal pathologies of the respiratory system. Recognising, diagnosing and assisting in the clinical management of the principal pathologies of the endocrine system. Nutritional pathologies. Recognising, diagnosing and assisting in the clinical management of the principal pathologies of the central and peripheral nervous system. Recognising, diagnosing and assisting in the clinical management of the principal dermatological pathologies, Recognising, diagnosing and assisting in the clinical management of the principal haematological pathologies. Familiarity with the principal infectious agents and their functional mechanisms. Recognising, diagnosing and assisting in the clinical management of the principal infectious pathologies in distinct organs and systems. Recognising, diagnosing and assisting in the clinical management of the principal pathologies of the immune system. Understanding the morpho-functional characteristics of newborns infants, children and adolescents. Growth. Premature newborns infants. Recognising, diagnosing and assisting in the clinical management of the principal paediatric pathologies. Child nutrition. Genetic diagnosis and counselling. Cognitive, emotional and psychosocial development in childhood and adolescence. Understanding the biological, psychological and social bases of personality and behaviour. Recognising, diagnosing and assisting in the clinical management of psychiatric disorders. Psychotherapy. Recognising, diagnosing and assisting in the clinical management of the principal types of poisoning. Palliative medicine. Recognising the characteristics of pathologies prevalent in the elderly. Family and community medicine: the patient's living environment, health promotion in the family and community setting. Recognising, diagnosing and assisting in the clinical management of high-risk lifestyles.
• Knowing how to take a complete anamnesis, taking into account multiple pathologies and interpreting their significance. Knowing how to carry out a physical examination by organ systems and body areas, as well as knowing how to conduct a psychopathological examination and being able to interpret its significance. Knowing how to evaluate changes in clinical parameters at different ages. Examination and monitoring of pregnancy. Establishing an intervention plan, focused on the needs of the patient and the characteristics of the social and family setting, adapted to the signs and symptoms of the patient. Knowing how to carry out basic and advanced life support procedures.

Module IV. Diagnostic and Therapeutic Procedures. (27 ECTS credits)

• Evaluating the risk/benefit ratio of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. Understanding the indicators of biochemical, haematological, immunological, microbiological, pathological and imaging tests. Being familiar with the characteristics of tissues in different situations of injury, adaptation and cellular death. Inflammation. Changes in cellular growth. Pathological anatomy of the various systems and apparatus. Biochemical, cytogenetic, and molecular biology markers applied to clinical diagnosis. Understanding the fundamentals of microbiology and parasitology. Understanding the principal techniques of microbiological and parasitological diagnosis and interpreting their results. Understanding the fundamental aspects of the interaction between radiation and the human organism. Radiological imaging. Basic radiological signs for various organs and apparatus. Being familiar with other diagnostic imaging techniques. Evaluating the indications and counter-indications for radiological studies. Being able to apply radiological protection criteria when using diagnostic and therapeutic procedures with ionising radiation are used. Knowing the principal pharmaceutical groups, doses, administration options and pharmacokinetics. Interactions and adverse effects. Prescription and pharmacovigilance. Pharmacology of the various organs and systems. Analgesic, antineoplastic, antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory pharmaceuticals. Understanding the general principles of anaesthesia and resuscitation. Nutrition and diet therapy. Understanding the principals indicators for electrophysiological techniques (ECG, EEG, EMG, amongst others). Knowing the physiopathology of wounds (including burns, frostbite and other types of injuries). Scarring. Surgical haemorrhage and thromboprophylaxis. Understanding general surgical indicators, pre-operative risk and postoperative complications. Transfusions and transplants. Understanding the principles and indications of radiotherapy. Understanding the fundamentals of rehabilitation. Promoting personal autonomy, functional adaptation to the environment, and other physical interventions in morbidity for improving of quality of life.
• Knowing how to obtain and process a biological sample for study using different diagnostic procedures. Knowing how to interpret the results of laboratory diagnostic tests. Being familiar with the use of disinfection and sterilisation techniques. Knowing how to systematically read and interpret a radiological image. Knowing how to use different types of pharmaceuticals properly. Knowing how to carry out and interpret an electrocardiogram and an electroencephalograph. Writing prescriptions properly, adapted to the needs of each patient and legal requirements. Evaluating the nutritional state of a patient and devising diets suited to different circumstances. Knowing how to apply simple surgical procedures: cleaning, haemostasis and suturing wounds.

Module V. Supervised Internship and Final Project. (60 ECTS credits)

• The internship comprises independent clinical rotations with a final assessment of skills, in health clinics, hospitals and other health centres, which will enable students to internalise professional values, doctor-patient communication skills, clinical reasoning, clinical management and critical judgment, as well as the treatment of the most prevalent health issues in the areas of medicine, surgery, obstetrics, gynaecology, paediatrics, psychiatry, amongst others.
• The final project involves completing an interdisciplinary piece of work that has a bearing on various academic subjects.