Curriculum of Term I and Term II education has been developed to teach the normal structure and function of human body in terms of cells, organs and systems while Term III education aims to teach defects of structure and functions of human body in a horizontally and vertically integrated manner preparing students to clinical terms.
Instruction methods
- Lectures (theoritical presentations)
- Laboratory practices
- Problem oriented education sessions
- Small group studies (professional skills/communication skills)
- Research projects
- Case discussions
- From symptom to sign
Problem oriented education (POE)
Integration of basic sciences into internal medical sciences and surgical medical sciences is mainly provided by “problem oriented education” sessions. In these sessions students discuss a virtual case scenario and reveal basic and clinical learning objectives in guidance of a trainer. Behavioral and ethical as well as public health objectives are also integrated into these scenarios. There are 7 and 8 different scenarios during Terms II and III respectively. All trainers are faculty staff of the medical school and receive a specialized course to be assigned as trainer for the POE sessions.
Professional skills
Education intended for professional skills starts quite early at Ankara University School of Medicine. Starting with Term I students practice on models and simulated patients to learn basic professional skills. Term I includes practices on first aid, whereas Term II includes practices on basic interventions such as blood sampling, IV and IM injection etc. Phase III mainly involve practices on history taking, physical examinations and getting informed consent. All practices are performed in small groups consisting of 10-12 students and a trainer. Simulated (standardized) patients are used for practices of history taking and physical examination. These patients are also helpful in practices of communication skills.
Communication skills
Medical students are given basic communication skills at Term II while more specialized training on physician-patient relationship is given at Term III. Following a four hour interactive session in small groups, practical sessions such as interviews with simulated patients, role play and peer feed-back are performed. There is a Communication Skills Laboratory at the Department of Medical Education and Informatics. Rooms designed as primary care physician’s offices are equipped by camera and microphone systems allowing recording of interviews and by mirror glasses blocking visuality from inside to outside of the rooms. After the interview a feedback is given both by the simulated patient and the observer. These skills are supported by real clinical situations at Terms IV, V and VI.
Evidence based medicine
The goal of Ankara University School of Medicine is to graduate students with high skills and proficiency in research and scientific thought. For this reason evidence based medicine lectures are mainly presented during Terms I-III. Lectures involve topics such as social medicine, health insurance systems, health economics, informatics, scientific though, research planning, collecting and analysing data, writing and reading scientific publications. Student groups consisting of 5-6 students prepare a research project in TermIII, present this project at the end of the term and get an examination score.
Selective courses
Students are expected to gain 2 credits from selective courses in Term I-IV. The lectures of the selective courses are particularly designed to integrate social and medical life.
Measurement and evaluation
- Multiple measurement and evaluation methods are performed at Ankara University School of Medicine.
- Knowlegde: Multiple choice test
- Professional skills: Objective structured clinical examination (OSCE)
- Laboratory practices: Objective structured laboratory examination
- Problem oriented education and communication skills: Evaluation of performance during lectures
- Simulated patients: Communication skills (OSCE)