Undergraduate
UCC offers an undergraduate (or Direct Entry, DE) and graduate entry (GEM) programmes in medicine. Our Department contributes to the training and eduction of both programmes: Years 3-5 of the Five Year Direct Entry Programme and Years 2-4 of the Four Year Graduate Entry Programme.
| Director | Coordinator | |
|---|---|---|
| GEM/Third Year Medical Clerkship | Dr Dan Mullane | Dr Ciaran Costello, SpR |
| Fourth Year Medical Clerkship | Dr Sinead Aherne | Dr Annlin Bejoy Philip, SpR |
| Final Year Medical Clerkship | Dr John Chandler | Dr Aoife O’Loughlin, SpR |
Overall, UCC has moved strategically towards offering a Connected Curriculum. This entails ensuring that what is learned in our programmes is relevant to the real world, that research and researchers are central to the materials taught and, more importantly, to the skills that students acquire for critical thinking and presentation of their thinking to the outside world. For our Department, this has not required a radical change to the way we teach. We strongly advise students to read recommended text in advance of attending their attachments and to select one or two of the module’s learning objectives for particular attention each day. Thus students are encouraged to become active partners in obtaining the greatest learning value form their time with patients. Many of our consultant teachers are research active and all have experience of conducting original research. Informal teaching sessions (which constitute the majority of our contact hours with medical students) are directed at demonstrating how principles of physiology and pharmacology are applied to the care of patients. Students are encouraged to observe constructively and to formulate questions based on what they encounter.
Many students choose to undertake anaesthesia-based subjects for their principal undergraduate research projects (MX 5090), to undertake summer electives with our Department and compete for the Gaffney Prize. Students are selected to represent UCC in the Henry Hutchison Scholarship examination in Anaesthetics (Fourth Year) based on their performance in writing a literature review in Third Year.
The principal modules to which we contribute are:
- GM2013: Professionalism and Patient Centred Practice
- CP3003: Clinical Science and Practice III
- CP5500: Preparedness for Professional Practice
- CP5100: Principles and Practice of Surgery
- MX5090: Research and Professionalism in Medicine II