The NWU Medical Graduate will align with all the HPCSA (Health Professions Council of South Africa) requirements (see https://www.hpcsa.co.za/). This North West Doctor will be a clinically competent generalist practitioner who is socially conscious, resilient and community orientated, an ethical team player and a critical thinker, and who can use modern technology (based on the Lancet Commission's (2010)1 recommendations for health professions education and the CanMeds Framework (2023)2).
We aim that your North West Medical Doctor will present the following characteristics:
- a medical expert who is also a leader, collaborator, health advocate and scholar, as well as a professional and efficient communicator.
- doctors that function in an interdependent relationship with their communities, patients, fellow students, faculty and the health system in which they are training and working.
- This interdependence follows further to the local, national and global events that influence the everyday lives of health professionals and health system users.
- As 21st-century learners, NWU medical graduates will also be digital natives.
To train future North West doctors, the MBChB curriculum will be a traditional six-year programme and will give entry to first-time entry students and graduates.
As the curriculum is now being developed, finer details such as the selection criteria, costing and funding options will be finalised.
1In 2010 the Lancet Commission on health professions training for the 21st century is a report that proposes a global framework to reform health professions education (see: Education of health professionals for the 21st century: a global independent Commission - The Lancet)
2CanMeds is a framework developed by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. This framework identifies and describes the abilities that medical doctors have to acquire to meet the healthcare needs of the patients that they serve. A competent physician presents with seven roles containing various abilities and competencies (see CanMEDS Framework: The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada).