Master of Medicine in Psychiatry

Purpose

The purpose of this qualification is to provide skills and knowledge necessary to equip learners for professional service in the context of the health needs of the population and also to produce learners who are socially accountable.

Rationale

The qualification will provide the learners with specialised knowledge and competence in science and practice in specialist clinical disciplines to enable registration with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) as a specialist It will prepare learners to contribute to the development and dissemination of knowledge at an advanced level by fostering scholarship and intellectual independence and by equipping them with skills and knowledge relevant to the practice of research and professional communication. It is also aimed at producing competent learners for admission to doctoral qualifications and to prepare them for a life of self-directed continuing learning, reflective practice and professional development.

Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL)

The principles underlying outcomes-based, source-based and life-long learning, in which considerations of articulation and mobility play a significant roleare subscribed to. Recognition of Prior Learning, whether acquired by formal education curricula or informally (by experience) is an indispensable element in deciding on admission to and awarding credits in an explicitly selected qualification.

Entry Requirements

The minimum entry requirement for this qualification is

• Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, Level 8.
• Two years' experience.
• Meeting Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) requirements.

This qualification comprises the following compulsory modules at Level 9 totalling at 720 Credits.

• Psychiatry Clinical and Professional Practice, 270 Credits.
• Research Methodology, 16 Credits.
• Psychiatry Clinical and Professional Practice 2, 270 Credits.
• Research Project, 164 Credits.

Clinical Competence

1. Diagnose and manage disorders appropriate to the discipline.
2. Demonstrate competence in procedures.
3. Ensure maintenance of high ethical standards in practice and research.
4. Benchmark clinical practice against international standards, using available evidence scholarship.
5. Demonstrate academic literacy in terms of critical thinking, the ability to access appropriate learning resources, formulating a research proposal, conducting the research and communicating the findings to the academic community.

Generic attributes competence in

1. Communicate with diverse audiences.
2. Create and sustaining harmonious and effective service delivery teams.
3. Lead in health provision.
4. Advocate Healthy behavior.
5. Mento junior colleagues in the area of specialty.
6. Dealwith complex issues both systemically and creatively.
7. Demonstrateself-direction and originality in tackling and solving problems.
8. Exercise sound judgement in the use of data and information.
9. Act autonomously in planning implementing professional tasks.

The following Associated Assessment Criteria are applied in an integrated manner to the Exit Level Outcomes

• Interact with text (oral and written) through critical listening/reading skills.
• Produce texts which integrate information from different sources using appropriate academic and professional conventions.
• Interpret and generate numerical data in various formats.
• Apply numerical data to research and clinical practice.
• Take a medical history at a level appropriate to the specialty and communicate the findings and treatment options effectively with the patient and referring doctor.
• Determine signs and symptoms of disease or injury and perform advanced physical examination appropriate to the level of a specialist in the field.
• Use cost-effective investigations which provide sufficient relevant information to aid diagnosis.
• Gather information from various sources, reflect critically on knowledge and information and in consultation with the patient and other health care professions (where appropriate) plan and implement to completion a treatment option.
• Initiate and complete a research project.

Integrated Assessment

The qualification is comprehensively assessed, particularly at exit level where the exit examinations are independently offered by the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa (CMSA) in accordance with national practice. Assessments address knowledge, skills and behaviours using a range of assessment modalities. In terms of the internal assessment, the Master of Medicine qualifications are unique in that, they are all in line with national practice.

All summative assessment for the non-research component of the degree, covering the clinical and professional practice are independently undertaken by the CMSA. Internal assessment is therefore formative and is conducted by the academic staff teaching the module. The Research Methodology module is internally assessed on the basis of satisfactory completion of a projectand the satisfactory publication of a research article in a peer-reviewed journal, or by the submission of a dissertation which is examined externally.

The assessment process is both formative and summative. Formative assessment comprises on-going continuous assessments by clinical and academic supervisors, clinical and theoretical presentations, grand round case presentations and professional portfolio reviews. Summative assessments include written papers, oral and clinical examinations. The CMSA runs regular assessment workshops and places a strong emphasis on validity and reliability.

In addition to the summative assessments set by the CMSA, learners are required to keep a personal portfolio and participate in a programme of regular, frequent formative assessment.. Progress is recorded and discussed with the leaarner in a private interview, thus providing timely feedback to the learner and trainer. All portfolios are reviewed and learners interviewed by the academic in charge of the programme biannually. This allows prediction of future performance and identification of special learning needs and the identification of common threads which may be fed back to inform either the process of teaching and learning or the curriculum itself. This qualification is further subject to inspection and accreditation by Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) every 5 years.

The workplace-based learning constitutes the major proportion of the credits for the qualification. Learners are assigned to provincial health-care institutions, and are simultaneously employed full-time by the provincial Department of Health with the rank of registrar. It is the learners' responsibility to provide clinical service to the public as an employee of the Department of Health, as directed by the Head of Clinical Unit or of Clinical Department under whom he or she operates. In order for the year level assessment purposes to be achieved, three 3-hour written, papers, clinical examination, and Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) oral examination, formative assessment, research project's submission of a satisfactory research dissertation or publication will form part of assessment methods.