Expand+EU Entry Requirements
Candidates must hold a minimum 2.1 (second class honours, grade one) result in their first honours bachelor degree (NFQ Level 8). For candidates who meet this requirement, GAMSAT (Graduate Medical Schools Admissions Test) will...

Hide-EU Entry Requirements
Candidates must hold a minimum 2.1 (second class honours, grade one) result in their first honours bachelor degree (NFQ Level 8). For candidates who meet this requirement, GAMSAT (Graduate Medical Schools Admissions Test) will then be used as the sole instrument to select students for the programme.

EU Application Process
Applications must be made through the CAO. Information about applying through the CAO is available at www.cao.ie. The course code for the Graduate Entry Medical Programme is LM101.

Non-EU Entry Requirements
Candidates must hold a minimum 2.1 (second class honours, grade one) result in their first honours bachelor degree (NFQ Level 8). For candidates who meet this requirement GAMSAT (Graduate Medical Schools Admissions Test) or in the case of North American applicants, MCAT will be used as an instrument for selection. Non-EU applicants must also attend for interview as part of the selection process.

Non-EU Application Process
Applicants should contact The Atlantic Bridge Programme for information on admissions and applications at www. atlanticbridge.com

Students admitted to the programme are required to undergo a Garda Vetting process.

Expand+Early online application (discounted): Fee €25 Closing Date: 20th January 2017 at 5:15pm

Normal online application: Fee €40 Closing Date: 1st February 2017 at 5:15pm

You should avoid submitting an application close to a closing date. No extens...

Hide-Early online application (discounted): Fee €25 Closing Date: 20th January 2017 at 5:15pm

Normal online application: Fee €40 Closing Date: 1st February 2017 at 5:15pm

You should avoid submitting an application close to a closing date. No extensions to closing dates will be allowed and all fees are non-refundable.

Restricted Courses
Applying for a restricted course – you must have applied to CAO by 5:15pm on 1st February 2017 if you wish to apply for a restricted course. The restricted course must be included on your course choices list by that date, or added to your application using the Change of Course Choices facility before 1st March at 5:15pm.

Restricted courses normally require additional assessment procedures, e.g. the submission of a portfolio, an oral assessment or interview, or a written assessment – restricted courses are identified in the handbook by the words “(Restricted - see page 3 of the 2017 CAO Hanbook)” on the same line as the restricted course’s title. Please make sure to acquaint yourself with the additional requirements, if any, of the restricted course(s) that you have applied for and go to page 11 of the 2017 CAO Hanbook for more information about interviews and assessments.

Exception: If a restricted course shares the exact same assessment procedures with a course you had applied for by 1st February 2017, you may be permitted to introduce it on a ‘Change of Mind’. You should consult with the relevant HEI before introducing such a course.

Restricted-category Applicants
Mature applicants – most HEIs will require mature applicants, who wish to be assessed on mature grounds, to have applied to CAO by 1st February 2017 at 5:15pm. (This restriction does not apply if the applicant wishes to be considered on the basis of school leaving qualifications only.) For more information about applying to CAO on the basis of mature years go to www.cao.ie/mature.

Applying for the HEAR and/or DARE schemes – to be considered for the HEAR and/or DARE schemes applicants must have registered on the CAO system by 1st February 2017 at 5:15pm and must have completed the HEAR/DARE application form by 1st March 2017 at 5:15pm – supporting documents must be sent to CAO offices before 1st April 2017 at 5:15pm.

Expand+Why study Graduate Entry Medicine at UL?
UL’s BM BS Graduate Entry Medical Programme is open to graduates from any discipline. It has a highly innovative curriculum which offers you the opportunity to complete undergraduate medical training in four...

Hide-Why study Graduate Entry Medicine at UL?
UL’s BM BS Graduate Entry Medical Programme is open to graduates from any discipline. It has a highly innovative curriculum which offers you the opportunity to complete undergraduate medical training in four years in an environment specifically designed for graduate students. During your four years of study, you will be taught the basic medical and clinical sciences necessary to form the basis for postgraduate training and for a career in any branch of medicine.

What you will study
The curriculum is taught in a traditional academic year. Years 1 & 2 are taught on campus and consist of 33 teaching weeks per year starting in August.

Years 3 & 4 commence in July and consist of clinical training, where you will rotate through the major clinical disciplines in affiliated hospitals and General Practices.

The curriculum has three main modules or domains:
• Knowledge of Health & Illness
• Clinical and Anatomical Skills
• Professional Competencies

These domains or themes run concurrently and underpin all learning across the four years. They are designed to ensure that all aspects of the skills required to become a doctor are addressed, from the sciences underpinning a rational approach to diagnosis and management, to an awareness of the importance of personal development.

To find out more, go to www.ul.ie/medicalschool

How you will be taught
Years 1 & 2
The first two years of the course are structured around Problem-Based Learning (PBL). This is backed up by a small number of lectures. There will also be structured clinical skills teaching and anatomical skills teaching. Teaching in the Professional Competencies takes the form of lectures, tutorials, workshops and seminars on topics such as psychology, public health, health law & ethics and medical sociology. All sessions are focused towards the topic of the week and exploring it from different perspectives including the scientific, sociological, public health, legal and patient experience. This means that everything you learn is done in the context in which you will use it when you practise as a doctor.

Years 3 and 4
In Year 3, all students will be located in the General Practice/Primary Care setting in one of six Primary Care Teaching Networks (PCTNs) for 18 weeks. In Year 3, all students will be located in the General Practice/Primary Care setting in one of six Primary Care Teaching Networks (PCTNs) for 18 weeks. For the remainder of Year 3, students will undergo hospital-based clinical training in Medicine and Surgery. Three weeks in Year 3 is devoted to the SSM.

In Year 4, students will spend 6 weeks of Clinical Training in each of Obstetrics/Gynaecology, Paediatrics and Psychiatry. They will also undertake another 6 weeks in Medicine & Related Specialties and a further 6 weeks in Surgery & Related Specialties. This will involve rotations through a number of affiliated hospitals. Six weeks in Year 4 is devoted to the SSM. Students that are placed in the Mid- Western Regional hospital network for their Year 3 Medicine and Surgery rotations must complete their senior cycle of Medicine and Surgery rotations in an affiliated hospital in Year 4 or vice versa.

What Problem-Based Learning (PBL) really means
The ‘problems’ are highly structured hypothetical clinical cases, each of which takes a week to work through. Each semester, students are divided into groups of seven or eight, each with its own tutor in a tutorial room, with PC, state of the art AV equipment and walls lined with whiteboards. The group meets with the tutor to work through the week’s case. The tutor does not act as a teacher, but as a facilitator, guiding your group through the sequence of steps which have been devised to help students learn from the clinical cases. Each step and new development in the case (such as results of investigations or details of drugs prescribed) is only given out after the group has finished discussing the previous step.

By working through the problem and hypothesising about what is wrong with the patient, the PBL group comes up with a list of learning issues that represent the key knowledge needed to understand what is happening to the patient. The group members then independently research these learning issues (also known as learning objectives) in their own time. At the next PBL tutorial, each group discusses what they have learned and the tutor distributes the next stage of the problem. The new information is discussed, new learning issues arrived at, and members again research independently. The group report back again and the final stage of the problem is explored and the case concluded.

By this time, the group is likely to have worked through:
• The original presentation of the patient (either at A&E, an outpatient clinic or a GP clinic).
• The history taken by the doctor
• The examination findings
• Any investigations ordered and their findings
(e.g. blood results, x-rays, biopsies, etc)
• The course of the patient’s illness (over hours, days, weeks, months or years) and the impact of this on the patient’s life.
• Treatment (pharmacological, surgical, psychiatric, etc)
• The involvement of family and others close to the patient
• Any complications that might have arisen
• The outcome of the case (including rehabilitation, ongoing community care, etc.)

Independent learning times are not just about reading from textbooks. During these times, you are encouraged to visit and make use of the facilities of the Anatomical Skills Education Unit and Clinical Skills Education Unit. Staff will be on hand to provide support in whatever area you feel you need it. However, to a large extent, students in the programme will be both encouraged and expected to assume a high level of responsibility for their own learning. Students will not be ‘spoon fed’ and there is a deliberate strategy to minimise the amount of didactic teaching in the curriculum.

Early Patient Contact Programme
During the first two years, The Early Patient Contact Programme at UL-GEMS gives students an opportunity to interact with patients. In the first semester, students in groups of three are assigned a patient from an affiliated general practice. The majority of patients assigned to students in the programme have a chronic illness e.g. Diabetes, Cystic Fibrosis, Multiple Sclerosis and many have multiple illnesses. Some students may be assigned an expectant mother where they will monitor her progress during pregnancy and subsequently the early development of her child. Over the course of the following 24 months students will get to know their patient as a person and how their illness and their illness experiences have affected their lives.

Students will be expected to interact with their patient in a variety of different settings e.g. the patient’s home, in the patient’s GP’s surgery and at their hospital clinic appointments. They may even accompany their patients to the operating theatre if they need surgery. The early patient contact programme helps students understand both health and illness and how each are managed from a patient’s perspective. The programme will also help students to appreciate the strengths and deficiencies of the health services and provide them with some insight into the relationships between providers and consumers of healthcare. Finally the experiences students get on the early patient contact programme will assist them in their learning of their classroom based subjects in particular their professional competency subjects.

Special Study Modules (SSMs)
Special Study Modules (Electives) allow students to study in-depth areas that are of particular interest to them. In total, students undertake three SSMs, one in each of Years 2, 3 and 4. Students have considerable choice over the subject of these projects, but the format for assessment is prescribed. Some students might choose to undertake their SSM locally and others may go abroad to complete these electives.

Expand+Years 1 and 2 Overview:
Year 1: Autumn / Spring:
• Knowledge of Health & Illness 1
• Clinical & Anatomical Skills 1
• Professional Competencies 1

Year 2: Autumn / Spring:
• Knowledge of Health & Illness 2
• Clinical & Anatomical Skills...

Hide-Years 1 and 2 Overview:
Year 1: Autumn / Spring:
• Knowledge of Health & Illness 1
• Clinical & Anatomical Skills 1
• Professional Competencies 1

Year 2: Autumn / Spring:
• Knowledge of Health & Illness 2
• Clinical & Anatomical Skills 2
• Professional Competencies 2

Year 3 & 4 Student Rotations
The structure of teaching and learning in Years 3 & 4 will involve student rotations through the major clinical disciplines.

Typically the year is structured as follows:
Autumn
• General Practice
• Primary Care (18 weeks)

Spring
• Medicine 1 (9 weeks)
• Surgery 1 (9 weeks)

Autumn / Spring
• Professional Competencies 3

Year 4
Autumn
• Obstetrics & Gynaecology (6 weeks)
• Paediatrics (6 weeks)
• Psychiatry (6 weeks)

Spring
• Medicine 2 (6 weeks)
• Surgery 2 (6 weeks)
• Special Study Module (SSM) (6 weeks)

Autumn / Spring
• Professional Competencies 4

Years 1 and 2:
In each of the first two years, the curriculum is further divided into six learning units, covering different topic areas. Areas covered by each unit include:

• Life Structure: Musculo-skeletal system, Rheumatology, Orthopaedics, Trauma, Plastic Surgery, Skin & Dermatology

• Life Cycle: Reproduction & Development, Child Health (Paediatrics), Obstetrics & Gynaecology, Sexual Health, Ageing, Death

• Life Maintenance: Alimentary System, Gastroenterology, Endocrinology, Renal Medicine, Urology, Nutrition

• Life Protection: Immunology, Infection, Haematology, Oncology, Preventative Medicine, Genito-Urinary Medicine

• Life Support: Cardiology/Cardiovascular Surgery, Respiratory Medicine, ENT

• Life Control: Nervous system, Neurology/ Neurosurgery, Vision & Ophthalmology, Psychiatry, Psychology.

A TYPICAL TIMETABLE FOR YEARS 1 AND 2 OF THE GRADUATE ENTRY
MEDICAL PROGRAMME;

Time
Monday: AM - Clinical Skills, PM - Anatomical Skill
Tuesday: AM - PBL, PM - Professional Competencies
Wednesday: AM - Lecture, PM - EPCP
Thursday: AM - Lecture, PM - Clinical Skills
Friday: Professional Competencies, PM - PBL

Key:
PBL = Problem-Based Learning
EPCP = Early Patient Contact Programme

Professional Competencies relating to psychology, social and community aspects of health care, epidemiology, biostatistics, Public Health Medicine, Occupational Medicine and Complementary Medicine, evidence-based medicine, health service organisation, health economics, health law and ethics, self-awareness and self-care.