QUALIFICATION CHARACTERISTICS
OF SPECIALITY “MEDICINE",
EDUCATIONAL AND QUALIFICATION DEGREE “MASTER",
PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATION “PHYSICIAN IN MEDICINE, M.D."
I. General Characteristics of the Profession and Education
The speciality Medicine is a regulated profession under professional direction 7.1. Medicine, higher education field 7. Health and Sports. At the Faculty of Medicine of the Medical University “Prof. Dr. Paraskev Stoyanov" – Varna (MU-Varna), the teaching process for acquiring higher education in the specialty of Medicine, educational and qualification degree Master, with professional qualification Physician (MD), is conducted in accordance with the Higher Education Act and the Ordinance on the Uniform State Requirements for the Acquisition of Higher Education in the Specialities of Medicine and Dental Medicine for the educational and qualification degree Master, which include the following requirements:
- the education shall be acquired at a Faculty of Medicine of a higher education institution accredited under the Higher Education Act;
- the educational process shall be conducted as a full-time programme, with a duration of 10 semesters and 310 days of pre-graduate internship;
- a uniform educational minimum for theoretical and practical training using the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS);
- education shall be completed by state examinations.
A major goal of medical education and priority of the Faculty of Medicine is the preparation of specialists who, through their high professionalism, are able to preserve and improve the health of society. The Faculty of Medicine of MU-Varna trains doctors who are able to successfully implement the acquired knowledge and skills in a real environment to protect, restore and enhance public health, i.e. the mission of the Faculty of Medicine is targeted on the social demands and requirements. Given the traditions and high level of the Bulgarian Medicine, the trends in the development of healthcare in the European Union and the global standards for higher medical education developed by the World Federation of Medical Education, the Faculty of Medicine is called upon to preserve and develop the academic and professional autonomy, to ensure and stimulate the development of professional knowledge and medical science, to ensure worthy realisation of its graduates as humane, responsible and improving individuals.
The Faculty of Medicine shapes the image of its graduates in accordance with academic standards and requirements, namely:
- trained professionals to best meet the medical needs and expectations of the society;
- to assume professional responsibility and be aware of their capabilities;
- to assess and make decisions in the event of incomplete data and in emergency situations;
- to accept the challenge of continuous medical education and enhancement;
- to be sufficiently critical of the increasing flow of information in the field of theoretical and practical Medicine;
- to adapt to the changing conditions in the healthcare and health insurance system and contribute to its improvement.
Education at the Faculty of Medicine of MU-Varna provides:
- knowledge of the mandatory academic disciplines for acquiring the professional qualification of Physician (MD), required for the successful professional realisation;
- a good understanding of the scientific method, principles of measurement of biological functions and means of evaluation of scientifically established facts and data analysis;
- necessary knowledge of the structure, function and behaviour of healthy and diseased people and of the relationship between health and the physical and social environment of the person;
- fundamental and clinical knowledge of human reproduction and methods of supporting reproductive health, as well as of the prevention and treatment of reproductive disorders;
- necessary knowledge and sufficient practice in clinical disciplines allowing a clear understanding of the aetiology, pathogenesis, prevention, epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of human health and disease disorders (somatic and mental);
- basic clinical experience in hospitals under the competent supervision of well-established specialists.
The training in Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine of Medical University “Prof. Dr. Paraskev Stoyanov" – Varna forms the Physician (MD) as a developed specialist who possesses the necessary knowledge, skills and qualities to implement the content, objectives and tasks of the general medical practice, builds up a creative, developing personality that complies with the moral, ethical and legal norms in Medicine.
II. Professional Competence
The professional competence of the Physician (MD) incorporates a variety of fundamental and specialised knowledge and skills:
1. Fundamental Biomedical, Medico-Ethical and Social Knowledge on:
- hierarchical levels and structure of the organisation of the human organism (molecular, cellular, tissue, organ, systemic);
- physico-chemical processes in the human body;
- pathways and regulation of metabolism and energy at molecular, cellular and organisational levels for the human body;
- genetic structures and processes of transmission of genetic and epigenetic information;
- ontogenetic and phylogenetic development of the individual;
- somatic, mental and social functions of a person;
- basic human life conditions – health and disease – and the factors that determine them;
- natural and social determinants of health and disease;
- aetiology and mechanisms of occurrence of diseases;
- epidemiology of infectious and non-infectious diseases;
- classification of diseases;
- ethical standards and morality of the physician;
- patients' rights;
- place of informatics in Medicine and healthcare, information systems and communications in Medicine and healthcare;
- organisation of the healthcare system in Bulgaria and the relevant basic normative documents.
2. Special Medical Knowledge on:
- medications and mechanisms of their action;
- methodology and technology of medical consultation in outpatient care and ward rounds in inpatient care;
- clinical pictures of diseases of all organs and systems of the human body;
- differentiation of clinical pictures of mental illnesses from the norm;
- structuring of a differential diagnosis plan through detailed knowledge of the methodology and technology of modern diagnostic methods (general and special methods for examining patients);
- conservative and surgical treatment of different diseases;
- management and treatment of life-threatening conditions;
- applying consensus on treatment of socially significant and chronic diseases;
- rehabilitation of impaired/lost functions;
- reproductive health, normal and pathological pregnancy, and childbirth;
- principles of medical ethics, medical psychology and deontology;
- medical communication techniques;
- technologies and tools for disease prevention;
- methods and techniques of health promotion;
- etc.
3. Specialised Medical Abilities and Skills
The Physician (MD) must be able to:
- conduct a medical interview with patients and to form the medical history of the disease as part of the official medical record;
- perform examinations of the patient using basic physical methods;
- perform basic instrumental and device tests included in the duties of the primary care and emergency physician (e.g. blood pressure measurement, performing electrocardiogram recording, etc.);
- provide modern emergency medical care; to know and apply the methods of emergency resuscitation (artificial respiration, heart massage, cardiac defibrillation, drug infusions, etc.);
- formulate a clinical hypothesis and determine the needs of patients for different types of medical care; determine the specific needs for performing different types of diagnostic tests and prepare patients for them;
- carry out the “clinical decision-making process" through making a nosological diagnosis (aetiological, functional, etc., if possible), determining the seriousness, severity and prognosis of the disease, treatment, and performing related non-invasive and invasive medical actions;
- perform basic non-invasive and invasive treatment manipulations and actions (various types of injections, punctures of body cavities, urinary catheterisation, gastric tube, local and conduction anaesthesia, wound treatment, bandages, handling skin lesions, incisions, removal of sutures from surgical interventions, blood transfusions and fluid infusions, etc.);
- conduct efficient monitoring of patients and effectively lead the development of the treatment process;
- explain and justify their actions and decisions at any time when questions or doubts arise regarding their practice;
- perform an expert assessment of the patient's working capacity;
- perform “bedside" diagnostics of a potential donor, being empathetic to the problems of organ, tissue donation and stem cell transplantation;
- professionally participate in preserving and restoring the mental health of the population.
- use the methods of medical statistics and the potential of medical informatics;
- perform prevention and health promotion, and provide health education.
4. Organisational Capabilities and Skills
The Physician (MD) must:
- be able to solve organisational problems in the profession;
- be able to work in a team, including an interdisciplinary one;
- precisely keep the medical documentation using modern electronic information technologies;
- be able to use the capabilities of the global information network (Internet) to solve professional problems (e.g. for telemedicine);
- have good skills in written and oral communication with doctors, patients, institutions and organisations (state, public, private);
- have good foreign language skills and use at least one of the established foreign languages for international communication.
5. Personal, Moral, Social Qualities and Skills
The Physician (MD) must:
- be able to demonstrate self-control at work and make decisions in emergency and critical situations;
- have the ability to assume responsibility and risks;
- have a critical attitude towards the quality of their work;
- be tolerant, recognising the probability of a “second opinion" and referring to another specialist;
- comply with the ethical and behavioural norms in Medicine and the society;
- practise their profession with goodwill and integrity;
- perceive the patient as a unique individuality and apply a psychologised and person-oriented medical approach;
- react adequately when moral and ethical problems arise in the working environment, between the patient and members of the healthcare team, or within the patient's family;
- prevent abuse of the position held;
- have developed a focus on social distinction and social commitment;
- have an intrinsic need and conviction of the need to accumulate new theoretical and practical knowledge and qualifications, and a drive for postgraduate and continuing medical education.
6. Research Knowledge and Skills:
The Physician (MD) must:
- have knowledge on the principles of research, planning, conducting and interpreting data from experimental and clinical studies;
- know the principles, advantages and limitations of different approaches to solving a specific health problem;
- be able to handle the main medico-biological and medical bibliographic databases (including electronic ones), as well as to critically analyse the information provided;
- be able to present scientific outcomes and analyses in writing and orally, independently or in a team.
III. Professional Realisation
As a consequence of the acquired knowledge and skills, the newly graduated Physician (MD):
- will be able to provide timely pre-hospital and hospital medical care;
- will be able to adapt to:
- the public requirements and the employer;
- the dynamic changes in the healthcare system;
- the changes in the demographic profile and morbidity of the population;
- the needs of the individual patient;
- the development of medical science and new technologies;
be able to assume the responsibilities expected from them and consolidate their position in the healthcare system;
The acquired professional competence will allow the newly graduated Physician (MD) to find a successful professional realisation:
- as a general practitioner;
- as a doctor of Medicine in all types of medical, diagnostic-consultative, prophylactic, social and other subdivisions of health care;
- as a doctor of Medicine in administrative services and health departments at municipal, regional and national level such as the Regional Health Inspectorate (RHI), Bulgarian Food Safety Agency (BFSA), National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF), etc.;
- continuing their medical education through the system of specialisation for obtaining a certain medical speciality;
- continuing their studies in Education and Science Degree Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) programme in accordance with their scientific interests;
- as a member of the research and training (academic) staff at medical universities or other higher schools and scientific institutes.
The Qualification Characteristics were adopted at a session of the Faculty Council of the Faculty of Medicine (Protocol No 18 of 10 February 2020) and approved at a session of the Academic Council (Protocol No 56 of 10 February 2020) of Medical University “Prof. Dr. Paraskev Stoyanov" – Varna.
