Professional outcomes
Our students will work in a hospital starting from the very first year of their degree program. In this way, they will be able to improve their ability to interact with doctors, nurses and patients. Empathy is key to high-level healthcare and patient satisfaction. This is why students in our medical degree program attend courses such as Introduction to Medicine, which are specifically designed for this purpose.
In our medical degree program, students are encouraged to develop their skills and think of learning as a lifelong experience. The study of medicine is a long-lasting process and, nowadays, the highest-level research is conducted in international environments. Our students will thus be made familiar with worldwide high-quality research in biomedicine to excel in clinical medicine and its cognate sciences, as well as in the ability to collaborate with other medical staff members.
Specifically, the aim of the six-year postgraduate degree in Medicine and Surgery is to train medical doctors at a professional level. We are training medical doctors to have a strong background not only in biomedicine, but also in psychology and general culture. Our prospective MDs will develop a multidisciplinary eye to examine even the most common health issues in terms not only of treatment but, crucially, in terms of disease prevention and health promotion as well. This goal is complemented by meticulous attention to how these three elements – treatment, prevention and health promotion – apply to our community and territory. This manner of conceiving medicine is based on recent approaches in healthcare, which are increasingly patient-centred rather than disease-centred. Our students will therefore become MDs who are inclined to consider their patients as a totality of "soma" and "psyche" acting within a specific social context.
Alongside basic and advanced medical knowledge, our students are also given many opportunities to develop the self-learning skills that are needed for their future careers. We believe that medical training is only the first step in a life-long learning experience. Therefore, in our degree program particular relevance is given to self-learning, first-hand experience in hospitals in the territory, and the study of epidemiology, so that students may develop both clinical-thinking and a keen awareness of the importance of prevention.
The specific purpose of the Master’s Degree in Medicine and Surgery of the University of Turin is to train doctors to carry out their activities in national and international contexts.
The internationalization is done through contacts with professors from foreign universities, who have various professional experiences and teaching approaches, and by the integration of new medical skills, which are required for physicians in our globalised world.
The degree course offers a multidisciplinary and integrated vision of the common problems of health and disease, as well as an education oriented towards illness prevention and health promotion. The curriculum focuses on the human being as a whole, and on communication in different cultural and social contexts.
Over the six years, the course is organized as follows:
- Basic sciences, with an introduction to medicine and early participation in one of the clinical internship programs
- Morpho-functional knowledge of the human body, human-environmental interactions, and clinical and semiotic methodologies
- Theoretical and practical knowledge related to large systems in internal medicine
- Diagnostic and therapeutic approaches, psychiatric, neurological, and sense organ-related sciences
- Maternal-child and reproductive medicine, internal medicine and oncology, diagnostic laboratory and radiology
- General and emergency medicine and surgery, public health, forensic medicine and professional ethics
The first years of training are characterized by numerous courses that integrate basic and clinical disciplines, and are supported by situational and tutorial teaching, advanced simulation tools, and an extensive network of certified internship programs, to ensure early contact with different types of case studies, pathologies and patients.
In the subsequent years, in order to offer a wide range of professionalising internship programs, the course of study leans on several teaching hospitals, health care and research facilities, emergency networks, general practitioners and pediatricians, and medical and humanitarian organizations engaged in education and health care in Italy and abroad.
Agreements with international and Italian NGOs and non-profit organizations provide students the opportunity to carry out internship programmes in field of clinical and social care on all continents.
From the second year of the course, in parallel with the study plan, deserving students who are interested in scientific research can access the MD-PhD program, which provides additional research training activities and numerous financial benefits, including a scholarship.
Students who do not enter the MD-PhD program but demonstrate interest in scientific or clinical research will receive dedicated tutoring for subsequent access to the PhD program, even after the second year.
Learning basic science laboratory methods, and exposure community and team operating models, precede a period of internship aimed at preparation of a thesis in an interdisciplinary and international manner. Everything is geared toward developing and consolidating clinical and research skills, and contributes to the achievement of a skill set expected at training completion.
Proficiency in medical and scientific English, and possibly other languages of the European Community, as well as the opportunity to work abroad, is intended to facilitate placement in international research and cooperation environments, as well as to residency programmes outside Italy.
At the completion of the educational programme, the expected outcomes are those of a graduated physician prepared in every fundamental aspect of medical science, able to start specialized training in any branch of medicine and surgery, to practice medicine in a variety of health systems, to be acquainted with new scenarios brought about by globalization, and to handle the permanent processes of learning and professional development.
At the end of training, the graduate in Medicine and Surgery has acquired:
- In-depth knowledge of cellular, molecular and genetic bases of pathologies and therapies
- Understanding and ability to interpret the morphological and functional abnormalities that are found in different diseases
- The ability to grasp the basic biological mechanisms of defence; the relationship between microorganisms and host in human infections, and related defence mechanisms
- Knowledge of the human life cycle and the effects of growth, development and ageing on the individual, family, and community of reference;
- Interpretation of epidemiology, health economics and bases of health management, especially in light of globalisation
- In-depth study on status of international health and global trends in morbidity, and mortality of major chronic diseases from a social point of view, considering the impact of migration, trade. and environmental factors on health, and the role of international health organisations
The graduate in Medicine and Surgery:
- Identifies the main risk factors for health and illness, and the interaction between humans and their physical, social, and cultural environment
- Properly performs the appropriate diagnostic and therapeutic strategies, in order to safeguard life, and knows how to apply the principles of evidence-based medicine
- Manages patients in an effective, efficient, and ethical way, by promoting health and preventing illness
- Recognizes the need for collective responsibility in health promotion interventions, which require close cooperation with the population, as well as the need for a multidisciplinary approach, including health professionals and intersectoral and international collaboration
- Properly uses local surveillance data, and regional and national demography and epidemiology in health decisions
- Implements, already at the beginning of professional activity, major biochemical interventions, pharmacological, surgical, psychological, social and any other required activity, in acute and chronic illness, rehabilitation and end-stage type treatments
- Develops and applies original ideas, within the context of biomedical and translational research