Deakin University School of Medicine

Educational institution in Australia

Deakin University's School of Medicine is based at the Waurn Ponds campus in Geelong, Victoria, Australia. It offers a four year, graduate entry, Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree. The medical degree is a 4 year course, with 2 years of pre clinical education at the University campus in Waurn Ponds, and then 2 years clinical education and experience in one of 5 clinical schools. The School has also developed other new undergraduate and postgraduate programs, namely Optometry, Medical Imaging, Agricultural Health and Medicine, Units in the Bachelor of Biomedical Science and Health Science Majors, Bachelor of Health and Medical Science Honours, and a Masters in Clinical Leadership.

On 8 April 2006, Prime Minister John Howard announced that Deakin University would host Victoria's third medical school. Under Prof Brendan Crotty, the first cohort of 120 students commenced their BMBS degree on 7 February 2008. The School of Medicine was opened on 1 May 2008 by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. In 2011, there were 130 Commonwealth Supported Places available. This figure included 33 Bonded Medical Places and 5 Medical Rural Bonded Scholarships (MRBS).

A cohort of students spend all their third year attached to a regional general practice where they complete a 'parallel rural community curriculum' through the Rural Community Clinical School (RCCS). Students cover the same material as those studying in hospital settings. Third year Deakin University medical students in the RCCS program are hosted in general practices in regional and rural Victorian towns including Bacchus Marsh, Daylesford, Colac, Ararat, Camperdown, Casterton, Horsham, Stawell and Hamilton. Teaching is provided by face to face instruction by general practitioners, clinical skills trainers, visiting medical and surgical specialists, online lectures and tutorials. Unlike in the other clinical schools attached to Deakin, the RCCS curriculum follows a Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship (LIC) model. Through this model, rather than cycling through set rotations throughout the year, students encounter a wide range of patient presentations which, with the complementation of online teaching, cover the same content that is encountered through conventional rotation based learning. Another aspect of the RCCS program is that students perform "parallel consulting" in general practice. This means the student consults one on one with a patient, then presents their findings to the supervising doctor. The doctor completes the consultation with the student observing, giving the student opportunities to develop practical clinical skills such as history taking, physical examination, case presentation and medical management. By placing students in rural general practices rather than major metropolitan hospitals, the aim of RCCS is to give students exposure to primary care and country family medicine, with the ultimate objective of encouraging more medical graduates to work in regional Australia, particularly in general practice.

MeDUSA, the Deakin Medical Students' Association, was established in 2008 to coincide with the entry of the first cohort of students.