OUR VISION
As far as the global trends in medical education and training of the emerging third millennium are concerned, we are anticipating certain changes both in the structure of our curriculum as well as the responsibilities of our teachers and students towards the developments that are already influencing the way medicine is practiced and taught.
Due to the enormous explosion of medical knowledge, cramming facts into students is no longer a legitimate educational objective and appropriate response to the growing needs of the patients. One of the major and inevitable trends is the shift from a predominantly knowledge-based, teacher-centered medicine and medical curriculum to evidence-based and practice-based medicine, which is becoming predominantly student-centered.
Simultaneously, we are also facing the challenge of integrating the principles of another generally accepted phenomenon at the European level, i.e. the Bologna process, with the global trends in medical education. Fortunately, the recent trends in medical education seem to be identical with the vast majority of the objectives outlined in the Bologna Declaration and Process.
In implementing the Bologna objectives, the specificity of medical curricula must be considered, particularly in relation to their strong bonds with particular health care systems. The harmonization of medical curricula should be viewed as a convergence process based on a shared knowledge of best practice and respect for the diversity and autonomy of the institutions.
In the case of the University of Zagreb School of Medicine, we are trying to create such a curriculum that will meet the global requirements and standards for graduate medical education, as specified by relevant international organizations (the Association for Medical Education in Europe – AMEE, the World Federation for Medical Education – WFME, and the Association of Medical Schools in Europe – AMSE). We are also deeply aware of the fact that medicine and medical education are constantly changing together with rapid changes in the research area; in order to achieve the goals of a research-based medical school, we are simultaneously developing certain features specific to medicine, such as clinical and translational research, which have already been a part of numerous national and international research projects and programs. Therefore, we are committed to the establishment of a new educational culture that will support the proposed objectives by constantly adapting our educational behavior to the new academic standards. Over the years to come, our goal is to create a multidisciplinary, integrated educational continuum for medical students, practicing physicians and health care professionals, in order to enable them to be altruistic, knowledgeable, skillful and dutiful to their country and the people they will serve in the course of their careers at home or abroad.
