Two medical subjects are ‘too much’ to study the family more

Family and community medicine is gradually entering medical degrees of Spanish universities. The Observatory of the Academy of Family and Community Medicine of Spain (AMFE), which has analyzed the level of implementation of the subject in the study plans, has registered a Improving progressive trend, although far from international standards, Inclusion of Family and Community Medicine in the six-year and 360 ECTS credit degree, means snatching space from others, Some public faculties that do not have this subject have already updated their study plans to make room for this subject At the expense of preventive medicine and English,

According to the AMFE Observatory, seven public faculties do not have the subject in their teaching plans: Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, University of the Basque Country, Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Tarragona), University of Málaga, University of Barcelona, University of Oviedo And University of Cantabria, these are the last two They will soon enter family and community medicineFor Preventiva and loss of English respectively.

“At the University of Oviedo, a Compulsory three-credit subject of Family and Community Medicine Which will be taught in fifth class. It has been approved in the new curriculum, which we hope Will be implemented in the 2025-2026 academic year“, assures Jose Antonio Vega, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine of this University. medical writing,

In such a situation this topic arises Coast of Preventive Medicine, which had nine credits And it remains at six in the fifth year, in addition to the other three for the most basic part of the subject in the first year. “Obviously it wasn’t easy”explains Vega, who says that “three credits (of family and community medicine) are enough. The same professor who will be in charge of the subject they agreed,

Removing English and entering the family

On my part, the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Cantabria, samuel cosAdvances that as a result of the Royal Decree 822/2021 of September 28, which establishes the procedure for the organization of university education and ensuring its quality, “In the new study plan we will implement Three compulsory credits of Family and Community Medicine in the third year, “By now we had rotation in the sixth, but not the principle.” An adaptation that will start in the next academic year 2024-2025,

“I think This was our shortcoming.Especially if we take into account that a large part of the graduates will end up doing family medicine in a health center,” details Cos, who agrees with Vega that three credits are enough for the time being, because The subject is complemented by knowledge that is taught in other similar disciplines, such as internal medicine. This time, Family and community therapy steals credit from English, since at that time it was believed that this language should be a core subject in all university degrees. “About 90 percent of medical students They come with a reasonable level of English“, argues Cos.

Course in Medicine, subject to MIR examination

In the case of the University of Barcelona, ​​the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Antony TrillaThe opinion of the head of teaching of the Directorate of Primary Care of the Community of the Catalan Institute of Health (ICS) differs, Yoseba CanovasWhich states that “the importance of family and community medicine at the university should be proportional to the places in the MIR proposal.” “This topic should not be given 28 percent at all,” Trilla says.,

The Dean explains that their study plan consists of two months in the sixth year of Medicine in which students practice in family and community medicine and during the degree This topic has presence among other similar topics, like public health. “The career is not based on specialties, but on the idea of ​​training doctors,” he emphasizes. ,If we remove it from one site others will complain For whom we can potentially reduce part of the tuition. Even everyone wants their own subject emergency medicine or child psychiatry“he adds.

Finally, Trilla reflects this The type of MIR examination should be taken into account, “It would help if MIR had more questions on aspects of family and community medicine, doctor-patient interactions, or more prevalent issues. people study what’s going to come on the exam“, he says. Dean also defends that the most complex processes should have their own place, but “In this respect, it can be tightened further, MIR is evolving and we are not even at the opposite end,” he concluded.