Commencing August 2023, NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, in partnership with the Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies, Faculty of Dentistry, Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, and the Department of Pharmacy, will introduce a new interdisciplinary shared curriculum. This is done with the objective of enhancing the integrated Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) programme with an interdisciplinary common curriculum.
The new Common Curriculum for Healthcare Professional Education has been meticulously designed to ensure that the educational objectives harmonize with the future vision of healthcare with focus on preventive healthcare and facilitating ageing in place through the use of technology and analytics.
About 280 first-year students from NUS Medicine will join 590 first-year students from Dentistry, Pharmacy and Nursing (class size of 870 altogether) and will be taking five specially designed courses together, and they will collaborate across the four healthcare disciplines as part of their learning journey. The common curriculum, which is to be completed in the first two years of their candidature, will complement the existing MBBS programme.
This cross-disciplinary curriculum seeks to cultivate awareness of social issues, teamwork, communication, ethics and professionalism, digital literacy, and interprofessional education in the context of health and healthcare. In addition, the Common Curriculum aims to equip the students with collaborative skills to engage in population healthcare planning, delivery and evaluation. Lessons are conducted through blended learning with a mix of online and in-person classes, which will be customised to feature group as well as individual learning sessions such as case-based discussions, fireside chats and self-reflections.