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Medicine

View the employability skills

Graduates who obtain a primary medical qualification, ie degree in medicine (BM) or degree in surgery (BS) then undertake postgraduate training for their chosen careers within the medical profession. About 1% of applicants may choose to work in other fields.

In addition to many professional and clinical capabilities specific to medicine, a graduate typically will have developed the transferable skills and abilities to:

  • retrieve, manage, and manipulate information by all means including electronically
  • present information clearly in written, electronic and oral forms, and communicate ideas and arguments effectively
  • be familiar with basic communication and information technology relevant to their duties
  • manage effectively time and resources and set priorities
  • study topics in depth and demonstrate insight into research and scientific method
  • adopt the principles of reflective practice and lifelong learning
  • deal with uncertainty and work within a changing environment
  • remain non-judgemental, teach, act as a mentor and work effectively within a team
  • adopt an empathic and holistic approach to patients and the problems they present
  • mediate and negotiate with patients, carers and colleagues
  • demonstrate proficiency in clinical reasoning so as to define and prioritise problems, interpret and prioritise information, and exercise professional judgement
  • learn and apply a very substantial body of scientific and practical knowledge.

Medicine is concerned with maintaining and promoting good health and the origin, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of disease and injury, and the impact of illness and disability on patients, their families and on populations. This includes understanding normal human structure and function at all stages of development, understanding the abnormalities of structure and function that occur in the common diseases, and recognising how illness affects both physical and psychological function and the patient's interaction with the environment and society.

Medical education imparts the knowledge and skills required for the prevention, diagnosis and assessment of common and important diseases in a variety of settings, and patient management with respect to control, cure, rehabilitation and support, and palliative care. Students must understand how diseases affect both the individual and the population, and how the environment interacts with disease and impairment to produce disability and handicap. They must understand the principles of disease prevention and be able to undertake health promotion.

Medical degree courses seek to impart appropriate professional and personal attitudes and behaviour, including critical evaluation, curiosity and lifelong learning skills as well as the ethical and legal framework of medical practice. The purposes are to provide an education in the basic and clinical sciences and to prepare graduates for professional practice. Undergraduate degrees in medicine produce graduates able to undertake the pre-registration house officer year. Graduates must be prepared to take part in continuing education and professional development throughout their working lives.

To check the growing range of resources produced by the Subject Centre to support employability and the use of this profile (including the Skills and Attributes map) go to www.medev.ac.uk.

This profile, produced in 2006, is based on the QAA benchmark to be found at www.qaa.ac.uk/academicinfrastructure/benchmark/honours/default.asp.


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